Treatment For Head Lice Effective With One Dose And No Combing
- By Patrick J. Skerrett, Former Executive Editor, Harvard Health
As a parent who has dutifully combed nits from my childrens hair, the promise of a no-comb treatment for head lice sounds mighty appealing.
As a parent who dutifully combed nits from my childrens hair, an alternative to head lice treatment with no combing sounded mighty appealing.
The FDA approved ivermectin for head lice in February 2012. That decision was based on two trials that included a total of 765 adults and children older than six months. Both were randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials. That means people with head lice, or their caregivers, were given a coded 4-ounce tube to use. Neither the doctor nor the recipient knew if the tube contained ivermectin or placebo.
CDC photo of the stages of the life of a head louse, with a penny for size comparison.
The contents of the tube were applied to dry hair and the scalp, left on for 10 minutes, then rinsed off with water. No one was supposed to use a comb to remove nits attached to hair strands. A clinician checked the persons head two days later, then again one and two weeks later.
On day two, 95% of those who used the ivermectin lotion were louse free, compared to 31% of those who used the placebo lotion. On day 15, the score was ivermectin 74%, placebo 18%.
After Treating With Lice Medicine
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Have your child put on clean clothing after every lice treatment.
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Check for lice again in 8 to 12 hours. Use the nit comb to remove dead lice and nits.
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If some are still present but moving slowly, do not shampoo again.
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If lice are still active and no dead lice are found, call your health care provider. These lice may be resistant to the medicine. Do not use more than one head lice medicine at a time without asking your doctor.
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Do not rewash hair for 1 to 2 days after the lice treatment. It may reduce the effectiveness of the lice medicine.
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Continue to check hair and use the nit comb to remove nits and lice every 2 to 3 days for 2 to 3 weeks. This process should be done for as long as nits and lice are still found on the head.
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Many lice medicines recommend a second treatment in 9 to 10 days. This will kill any new nymphs that have hatched since the first treatment. Do not treat a person more than 2 times with the same medicine without talking to your doctor.
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Do not use conditioner for 10 days after any treatment.
If all nits are not removed, they may hatch into live lice. The hair will be re-infested and you will have to start the treatment process all over again.
What About Other Treatment Options For Head Lice And Nits
Various other insecticides have been used in the past. For example, permethrin is no longer recommended for head lice because there are concerns that many lice are now resistant to it. Phenothrin and carbaryl are no longer available in the UK.
There are various other treatments that are said by some people to work. For example, tea tree oil, quassia, other essential oils, herbal remedies and electric combs. However, there is a lack of research studies to confirm that they work well in most cases. Therefore, until more research is done, these other methods cannot be recommended.
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Removing Nits With Listerine
Listerine contains several ingredients that repel lice and dissolve nits. These may include menthol, methyl, alcohol, eucalyptol, salicylate and thymol. Alcohol kills lice and herbal oils help in suffocating them. Listerine functions adequately to remove bugs and nits. Soak your hair in Listerine and cover your hair with a shower cap for half an hour. Now rinse your hair with warm water and vinegar. Use an ordinary hair conditioner to detangle your locks and comb out with a nit comb.
Note: Whenever you use a fine-tooth lice comb to remove nits, make certain that you are sitting in a bright nit-removal area, preferably with some light over your head. Using a magnifier makes it easier to see tiny nits. Once you have used the comb, dunk it in a bowl with water and vinegar or a bowl filled with water and dishwashing detergent.
Can You Feel Lice With Your Fingers
Head lice are tiny and very fast, so they are tricky to catch. Additionally, their size and lightness makes them difficult to feel with your fingers once you have got one off the nit comb. You cant even feel them crawling on your scalp. What you feel with head lice is a reaction to their feeding.
If you are allergic to the saliva the head louse injects as they feed, then you will itch. The nits or eggs are different, and you can more easily pull these off the hair shaft with your fingernail. They too are tiny and light so you cant really feel them either.
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Aim At Adult Head Lice
Want to know how to get rid of lice eggs? Start your lice killing session by aiming at the adult lice. An adult louse lays about 6 to 10 tiny eggs in a day. Thus the numbers of nits keep on multiplying with each passing day. Here are a few ways to kill adult lice
Outnumbered head lice products are available for topical use, try them to get rid of nits and lice. These may includeanti-lice prescription shampoo, crème rinse and lice sprays.
Smothering and suffocating the lice is yet another useful technique. To do that, you have to cover your scalp with some greasy product . The oily substance tends to block several breathing holes found on lices body. Secondly, the greasy scalp makes it difficult for lice to move easily. As lice are strong enough to survive for several hours without breathing, putting on a shower cap on your head would add more in lice suffocation process. To suffocate the live lice completely, leave the grease on your head for about 8 hours. Before rinsing your hair, use high quality lice comb to comb out the nasty lice and glued nits. As the oily substance would not come off easily, using hot water for rinsing hair is highly recommended.
How To Comb For Lice
Here is a step-by-step guide for wet combing to remove lice :
The wet combing method is highly effective for removing lice, but it relies on consistency to work. You should repeat this treatment every 1 to 2 days until no lice have been found on your childs head for at least 10 days.
After you have gotten rid of the lice, your goal turns to prevention. Try using tea tree oil or Hair Fairies Nit-Zapping Clenz Prevention Oil 2 to 3 times a week along the hairline to keep lice away. You may also want to wash your childs clothes and bedding with Hair Fairies Heavy Duty Laundry Detergent to kill any remaining lice, eggs, or nits.
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What Do Lice Bites Look Like
Some people are very sensitive to head lice. Some even get little red raised bumps, often on the back of the neck or on the scalp as a reaction to their feeding. Sometimes these can become infected with bacteria from itching.
Head lice themselves carry a lot of bacteria, as does their faeces and discarded exoskeletons which they shed as they transition between some growth stages, so it is important to keep the fingernails short and clean to minimise the risk when itching.
How To Choose The Most Popular Best Nit Comb
There are three most important factors to keep in mind while deciding on a product: pricing, quality, and popularity.One obvious consideration is price. You must make sure that the price matches your budget.To get the greatest product, you need to pay attention to the quality of the things you are purchasing.When it comes to acquiring new clients, popularity is just as important as pricing or quality, if not more so.
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How To Get Rid Of Nits: What You Need To Know
If you want to be properly prepared and ready for action when you and your child are under threat from head lice, then you need the facts. However, what is more important is that those facts are correct. There are a lot of false facts and myths knocking around the internet which mislead and freak people out unnecessarily. So how can you really get rid of nits?
At The Hairforce we have been professionally clearing nit and head lice infestations of all sizes and severities since 2006 so we know the facts from the fiction. We are always happy to impart our knowledge and help families everywhere deal with this issue successfully.
Heres what you need to know about how to get rid of lice and nits.
Full Article And Reviews Of Lice Combs
For those new this lice game, lice eggs and nits are the same thing and the two words will be used interchangeably throughout this article.
A good lice comb is critical to getting rid of lice quickly and, more importantly, getting rid of it for good. A mistake too many people make when trying to get rid of head lice is that they put a lot of energy into killing the adult lice bugs, but pay much less attention to removing lice eggs stuck in the hair.
Regardless of what lice treatments say on the box about killing lice eggs, nits left in the hair will inevitably hatch, and within a few weeks, you or your child will have a full blown lice infestation all over again.
If you dont remove every last lice egg from your childs hair, you will end up going around and around in the cycle of endless lice. Perhaps youre even stuck in this cycle right now…
There are three reasons why lice eggs are so difficult to deal with. First, lice eggs are incredibly resistant to all lice products and treatments, so they are impossible to simply kill. Second, they are glued to the hair, so they will never fall out eventually. Third, lice eggs are surrounded by a strong protective coating, which is impenetrable.
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What Type Of Nit Comb Do The Professionals Use
The Hairforce who are the UKs professional nit and head lice clearing service use a gold standard long-toothed nit comb called the LiceMiester.
If you are unsure whether it is head lice or not and you want a professional check, or if necessary a clear, then do contact us. Our network of nit and head lice removal clinics can sort it for you in 2 appointments, 7 days apart.
How Are Lice Normally Treated
If you suspect head lice, check the base of the hairs for eggs. They are oval, yellow or white, and tiny, less than one millimetre long. Also look carefully at the hair to see if you can spot adult lice. Favourite spots for infestation are behind the ears, and at the nape of the neck. If you can’t see anything, try combing the hair with a fine toothed comb over a piece of white paper to see if any lice drop out.
Most people prefer to try natural methods to treat this problem first. This is a good idea because lice are becoming increasingly resistant to chemical treatments. The most effective is wet combing but it is hard work and youll need to be persistent.
The best procedure is as follows:
- Wash the childs hair and apply a generous amount of conditioner, which should be left in.
- Use a good quality fine toothed steel comb and comb the childs hair in small sections over a piece of paper so you can see the lice drop out. Wipe the comb clean on a piece of tissue between each stroke.
- Continue until you cant see any more lice or nits after combing. This will probably take at least half an hour.
- Repeat every three or four days for at least two weeks so you remove any hatching lice before they have the chance to lay new eggs. You cant remove the eggs by combing, only the lice.
If lice are still present after the second application, they may be resistant to it. Try a different brand with different active ingredients.
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Best Nit Combs In The Uk Market
A nit comb is an essential tool in shutting down a head lice infestation, however, it is important to know which are the best nit combs to use and how to use them in the most effective way.
There are many different types of nit comb out there long-toothed metal nit combs, short-toothed metal nit combs, those with smooth teeth and those with spiral teeth, plastic ones, free ones and gold standard ones. Choosing the right one is an informed choice and can be the difference in getting on top of an infestation or not.
In this article, we will help you choose the best nit comb so that you can shut down an infestation as soon as possible.
Why Is The Nit Comb Not Removing The Eggs
Sometimes the nit comb will not remove the eggs. This can happen in 2 situations:
To counter this, you need to use conditioner and nit comb very thoroughly and then with those stubborn eggs pull them off with your fingernails.
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How To Find A Good Lice
A high-quality lice comb has long, fine, metal teeth that are very close together. Some experts say not to bother with plastic combs or the ones that come in the lice medicine packages. The best combs are available online and from lice salons.
Good combs to try include the Nisska , about $24, the Nit Free Terminator, around $13 and the LiceMeister, about $10.
You may see or hear about electronic combs, but according to Richard Pollack, a lice expert at the Harvard School of Public Health, the electronic versions probably offer no advantage over a traditional, well-designed lice comb.
Can My Child Go To School With Head Lice
If your child has head lice, a common-sense approach is to tell the parents of their close friends to look out for lice in their children.
Children with head lice should carry on going to school. You need close head-to-head contact to pass lice on to others. Young children who play closely together or have close contacts may pass lice on.
Schools have a responsibility to give regular advice about head lice. School nurses no longer do regular nit combing.
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How To Get Dead Lice Eggs Out Of Hair
Even after they die, nits will still remain on the hair, so how do you get rid of dead nits stuck in hair? Both to get dead lice eggs out of the hair and to get rid of live nits and head lice, you will need to nit comb the hair following these steps:
An alternative to get rid of nits fast is to take them to the professionals to clear it for you with just two appointments, 7 days apart. Our clearing process at Hairforce Clinics uses a combination of clever technology and forensic hand clearing to get it all out and shut it down. The process is entirely natural without a head lice product treatment in sight.