Lice Clinics of America DFW Shares Back to School Lice Prevention Tips

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Back to school time is a busy time for parents. There is always lots to do to get kids ready to return to the classroom—new clothes, supplies, and the rigors of getting back on a schedule of getting ready each morning.

It’s also a busy time for head lice, according to Gus Romero, owner of Lice Clinics of America® DFW. “We always see a surge in cases of head lice in September. Kids get head lice over the summer, and when they return to school, the lice spread like crazy. It happens every year.”

There are some things you can do to reduce the risk that your child will be one of the unlucky ones during the first few weeks of the school year.

“We tell parents every year that the most important thing they can do to curtail head lice is to communicate,” Gus said. “Talk to other parents, teachers, school nurses, and administrators about the school’s lice policy and what to do when a child has head lice. Having a plan for what to do in the event of an outbreak can reduce the panic, blaming, or silence that can make things worse.”

Gus also recommends frequent head checks by a professional. “Lice and eggs (nits) are very difficult to see by the untrained eye, and it can take a few weeks for symptoms like itching to develop. Early detection can make treatment easier and can prevent lice from spreading to others. As more lice are born, they start looking for new homes.”

It helps to understand how lice spread. “Lice only spread through head-to-head and hair-to-hair contact,” Gus said. “They can’t jump or fly. Children get them more often because they touch heads more often than adults do.” Lice can also spread through kids sharing hair care products like combs and brushes, and clothing like hats and helmets, but this is rare and only happens if a strand of hair on an item has a live louse on it.

There is also a new generation of lice prevention products that can be used regularly or just at high-risk times like back to school. Lice Clinics of America’s Lice Preventer Kit is a non-toxic, pediatrician-recommended liquid gel in a no-mess dispenser that makes application fast and easy. You apply it at shower time, and it works as a kind of lice repellant for up to six weeks.

If you do find head lice on your child, don’t panic, and don’t blame yourself or other parents or children. “Our message to parents and children alike is always, ‘you didn’t do anything wrong,’” Gus said. “It’s true, and it’s proven that lice have nothing to do with cleanliness or hygiene. They will spread where ever they can to survive.”

You also don’t have to panic because head lice are easier to get rid of than ever, thanks to Lice Clinics of America’s FDA-cleared solution, the AirAllé® medical device. It’s been clinically shown to kill live lice and more than 99 percent of eggs (nits) using heated air to dehydrate lice and eggs. Best of all, it does it all in a single treatment that takes about an hour, and it is guaranteed to be effective.

“If you come in for a head check and we find lice or eggs on your child, we can provide treatment on the spot, and you’ll leave the clinic lice free,” Gus said.

Lice Clinics of America Dallas-Fort Worth Shares Summer Lice Prevention Tips

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Lice don’t take summer off, according to Gus Romero owner of Lice Clinics of America® DFW. In fact, summer months often spur an uptake in cases of head lice when children spend an extended amount of time together with sleepovers, camps, and family vacations.

“Summer vacations when kids are sleeping together, or staying with other families, are opportunities for the spread of head lice,” Gus said. “Here are a few things you can do to decrease the odds that your child won’t bring lice home from summer sleepovers and vacations.”

  1. First and foremost, get a professional head check before and after vacations or camps. Make sure that your child doesn’t already have head lice before you leave. Many children have lice without knowing it. It can take up to two weeks before symptoms like itching start to occur. Check again when you get home.
  2. Use a lice prevention product like Lice Clinics of America’s Lice Preventer Kit. It’s a non-toxic, pediatrician-recommended liquid gel in a no-mess dispenser that makes application fast and easy. You apply it at shower time, and it works as a kind of lice repellant for up to six weeks.
  3. Make sure your children have their own hair care tools and accessories like combs, brushes, clips and anything else they use on their hair. Sharing items that contain strands of hair is one way that lice can spread.
  4. If children will be swimming, they shouldn’t share towels at the pool or beach. Lice can hold their breath for up to eight hours, so if your child uses a towel that others have used to dry their hair, it could be an opportunity for head lice to climb on board.
  5. In general, discourage sharing. This can be a difficult lesson for parents to give children. We all want our children to be kind and to share. But in addition to hair care products, towels, pillows, hats, scarves, jackets and any other products where detached strands of hair might be found can be a source of head lice. Because head lice can’t live anywhere but on a human scalp, if they are on hair that falls off of someone, they will do whatever they can to return to a human head.

Finally, if your child does come home with head lice, don’t panic or punish yourself. “You and your child didn’t do anything wrong,” Gus said. “12 million people get head lice each year in the United States alone. It’s like catching a cold.”

Gus also wants you to know that getting rid of head lice is easier than ever, thanks to Lice Clinics of America’s FDA-cleared solution, the AirAllé® medical device. It uses heated air to dehydrate lice and eggs and has been clinically shown to kill live lice and more than 99 percent of nits in a single treatment that takes about an hour, and the service is guaranteed to be effective.

“If you come in for a head check and we find head lice or nits on your child, we can treat him or her on the spot, and you’ll leave our clinic lice-free, guaranteed,” Gus said.

The Search is Over. End the Lice-Mare Today at Lice Clinics of America DFW

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It’s no secret that ridding your family of head lice can be stressful and time-consuming—a nightmare that some have called a “lice-mare.” Most do-it-yourself lice treatments require repeated applications, tedious comb-outs, and nitpicking, with no guarantee of success. If one nit is missed, the lice will return.

Lice Clinics of America® Dallas-Fort Worth offers an immediate, FDA-cleared, guaranteed solution and our professional technicians do it for you so you can skip the mess and the endless combing.

Gus Romero owner of five convenient Lice Clinics of America treatment centers in the DFW area says, “Treating head lice have become more difficult as they have developed immunity to the most popular do-it-yourself products.” The most recent study of these so-called “super lice” published in the Journal of Medical Entomology found that 98 percent of head lice in 48 U.S. states are now immune to pyrethroids, the class of pesticides used by OTC lice products. Pyrethroids have also been linked to developmental and behavioral problems in children.

“When using pesticides that are no longer effective and potentially dangerous, it’s not uncommon for people to struggle with head lice for weeks or months,” states Gus. “Most parents are thrilled to learn that they can come to our clinic in <your town> and leave lice-free, in about an hour.”

Lice Clinics of America is the exclusive provider of professional head lice treatment using the breakthrough AirAllé® medical device. Cleared by the FDA and clinically shown to kill live lice and more than 99 percent of eggs (nits) the AirAllé uses precision controlled heated air to dehydrate lice and eggs. Most treatments take about an hour and are guaranteed to be effective. “And, says Gus, the good news is pesticide-free, non-toxic AirAllé treatments are effective against “super lice.”

“Our clinic has been a welcome blessing to parents that used drug store do-it-yourself products in vain,” said Gus, “And so many parents are uncomfortable using pesticide-based products on their children.” Worldwide, AirAllé medical devices have treated more than 400,000 cases of head lice with a success rate of better than 99 percent. There are now more than 300 clinics in more than 36 countries.

“We want to get the word out that families don’t have to struggle with head lice any longer,” says Gus. For parents that have tried and failed to treat head lice on their own, our professional technicians can end your ‘lice-mare’ today with the fastest, safest, most effective treatment on the market.

Lice Clinics of America also offers a complete line of non-toxic, pesticide-free, fast-acting at home lice prevention and treatment products. We have treatment options that work for every family and every budget. Preventive shampoos, conditioners, and sprays can serve as a lice repellant. Our popular at home treatment product, the Lice Remover Kit, includes a custom applicator, and a non-toxic, pesticide-free liquid gel that immobilizes lice, detangles hair and facilitates the easy removal of lice and eggs.

Why Schools Are Moving Away from “No-Nit” Policies

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When kids get lice, two of the most commonly asked questions parents ask at Lice Clinics of America® DFW are, 1) why wasn’t I notified that lice were found at my child’s school? And, 2) why aren’t kids with lice sent home from school until they are lice-free?

“The majority of schools have moved away from ‘no-nit’ policies that require students to stay out of school until they are lice and nit free,” says Gus Romero, owner of Lice Clinics of America Dallas-Fort Worth. “The recommendation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the National Association of School Nurses (NASN) have all stated that no-nit policies should be discontinued.”

The past decade has seen a significant shift in the medical and educational communities about how to deal with head lice. “Doctors, nurses, and teachers now recognize that head lice do not represent a serious health threat and a case of head lice does not warrant missing valuable school time,” Gus said. “Also, while some schools will notify the parents of children that are found with head lice, most schools don’t warn other families because of the panic and blame that often take place.”

The policy changes are designed to help keep children from missing class, shield children with lice from embarrassment, and protect their privacy. The CDC lists the following reasons for the change in policy:

  • Many nits are more than ¼ inch from the scalp. Such nits are usually not viable and very unlikely to hatch to become crawling lice, or may, in fact, be empty shells, also known as ‘casings.’
  • Nits are cemented to hair shafts and are very unlikely to be transferred successfully to other people.
  • The burden of unnecessary absenteeism to the students, families, and communities far outweighs the risks associated with head lice.
  • Misdiagnosis of nits is very common during nit checks conducted by non-medical personnel.

According to the AAP, “Most cases of head lice are acquired outside of school.” That’s why “the AAP continues to recommend that a healthy child should not be restricted from attending school because of head lice or nits (eggs). Pediatricians are encouraged to educate schools and communities that no-nit policies are unjust and should be abandoned. Children can finish the school day, be treated, and return to school.”

The reality for most school districts is that the effort involved in keeping schools entirely lice-free would be a futile use of their limited resources. The CDC estimates that there are 6-12 million cases of head lice in children between the ages of 3-11. This means that at least 1 in 5 students have lice at any given time. In the early stages of a case of head lice, many children display no symptoms as nits, and adolescent lice, don’t bite and don’t cause the itching sensation that indicates the presence of head lice.

Keeping a school lice-free would require constant checks of the entire student body, which is unrealistic and unnecessary for a condition that is not considered a health problem. That’s the conclusion that the CDC, AAP, and NASN have come to, and many school districts are following these recommendations.

“No-nit policies were developed because traditional lice treatments can take several weeks to be effective,” Gus said. “The first treatment is designed to kill live lice but doesn’t kill eggs, or nits. Since nits can hatch over ensuing weeks, combing and nit-picking are required with traditional treatment.”

“The good news for families in the Dallas-Fort Worth area is that there are new lice treatments available that can kill live lice and nits in a single session,” Gus said. “Lice Clinics of America offers head lice treatment using a first-of-its-kind, AirAllé® medical device, which has been cleared by the FDA, clinically proven to kill live lice in more than 99 percent of nits in a single treatment, and takes about an hour.”

The AirAllé device uses carefully controlled warm air to dehydrate lice and eggs, and in the company’s network of 300+ clinics around the world, nearly 400,000 cases of head lice have been successfully treated.

“With the AirAllé device, your lice nightmare is over in about an hour, guaranteed,” Gus said. “Regardless of your school’s head lice policy, kids can go right back to school the same day.”