If your child is diagnosed with head lice, you have several treatment options.
First you can go to the drug store and purchase a lice-removal product. This is the most common response and the one typically recommended by school officials and medical professionals. However, recent studies have shown that the majority of head lice in the United States and in many other countries where these products are used have become resistant to the active ingredients (a class of pesticides called Pyrethroids) and are no longer effective. Also, even when effective, these products only kill live lice and not the eggs (nits). So parents will still be required to comb through the child’s hair, and meticulously remove every nit by hand. Failure to do so will result in the eggs hatching and a fresh case of head lice, starting the process over.
Another option is to go online and look for advice. There is plenty to be had. Other parents and bloggers will swear by home remedies like using mayonnaise or petroleum jelly to suffocate the lice, for example. There is simply no scientific evidence that these products are effective. Even if they manage to suffocate head lice, they won’t kill eggs any better than the chemical products will. Eggs don’t breath.
Both lice medications and home remedies require extensive nitpicking—the meticulous process of checking a child’s hair, strand by strand, to remove each egg. It is painstaking work, and unfortunately subject to frequent human error. Nits are notoriously hard to find and difficult to remove. As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says in its guidance on head-lice treatment, “After each treatment, checking the hair and combing with a nit comb to remove nits and lice every 2–3 days may decrease the chance of self–reinfestation. Continue to check for 2–3 weeks to be sure all lice and nits are gone.”
Back to the issue of scientific evidence–there is now a third option for lice removal, one that is scientifically proven. Lice Clinics of America has introduced an FDA-cleared, clinically proven medical device that kills live lice and 99.2 percent of nits. It uses carefully controlled warm air to dehydrate the lice and eggs, and the entire treatment process can be completed in a single 90-minute session.
Lice Clinics of America is the exclusive provider of the AirAllé medical device. The device was developed by scientists that were studying lice at the University of Utah. They found that lice and eggs are more easily killed by dehydration than by suffocation. After years of study and rigorous clinical trials, the AirAllé device was cleared by the FDA as safe and effective for head-lice removal. Studies found that the device kills live lice and 99.2 percent of eggs.
The AirAllé lice treatment takes about 90 minutes. No repeated comb-outs are necessary and no chemicals are involved.
The success of AirAllé-based lice treatment has been extraordinary. Lice Clinics of America has quickly grown into the largest professional lice treatment network in the world. Currently there are more than 100 clinics operating in the United States, and clinics open in more than 20 countries worldwide. Parents, teachers, administrators and healthcare providers have embraced this fast, safe, effective, scientific alternative to chemicals and home products
