Until recently, parents dealing with head lice had three treatment options for their children:
- Hours-long comb out sessions and daily head checks live lice and their eggs (nits)
- Harsh, chemical insecticide treatments
- Unproven natural home remedies- mayonnaise, tea tree oil and even mouth wash are a few popular options
Retail and prescription chemical lice treatments carry significant risks. Some are increasingly ineffective, as super head lice have built up resistance to most non-prescription products. Most of them also use neurotoxins to kill lice which kill lice by attacking the central nervous system. Parents are growing wary of saturating their childās scalp and hair with these chemicals.
This concern about chemicals has caused a rise in the popularity of so-called ānaturalā head-lice treatments. Search for head-lice remedies online and youāll find plenty of parents and bloggers who swear by mayonnaise, petroleum jelly, tea tree oil, vinegar, mouthwash and a host of other household products to keep head lice at bay.
Be forewarned. Both the National Association of School Nurses and Centers for Disease Control warn families there is no substantial scientific evidence that proves the effectiveness of popular home remedies for head lice.
In fact, some home remedies can be even more dangerous than the chemicals they replace. For example, suffocation treatments like mayonnaise require the children to cover their heads in plastic while they sleep. Putting plastic over a sleeping childās head is a suffocation hazard.
Just because a substance is naturally occurring doesnāt mean it is harmless. Take tea tree oil, for example. The Mayo Clinic warns about the use of tea tree oil as a health care product stating that “cause skin irritation” such as “burning, drying, eczema, fluid build-up, itching, rash, redness, scaling” as well as other health concerns.
A common issue with both chemical and home treatments is that even if they kill live lice, they donāt kill eggs, which are the real problem when it comes to completely ending a lice infestation. Female lice can lay 4-5 eggs per day, and the eggs gestate for 7-10 days. This means if all the eggs are not removed, youāll have a fresh case of head lice when they hatch.
Fortunately researchers at the University of Utah have developed a completely safe, fast, effective medical device to kill head lice and eggs in a single 90-minute treatment. Itās an entirely different approach. The device, called AirAllĆ©, uses nothing but carefully controlled heated air to dehydrate and kill both lice and eggs. It has been clinically proven to be safe and effective, and is cleared by the FDA. The AirAllĆ© device can be found at Lice Clinics of America centers around the world where certified technicians deliver guaranteed results.
If you and your family have been dealing with a lice infestation for far too long, find the nearest clinic near you to get rid of lice once and for all.