Lice Clinics of America® – College Station, Tomball, and The Woodlands Shares Summer Camp Lice Prevention Tips

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Ah, summer camp. Campfires, s’mores, swimming, and…head lice?

“Head lice don’t take the summer off,” said Sonia Watt, owner of Lice Clinics of America® – College Station, Tomball, and The Woodlands. “In fact, summer camps are ‘custom made’ to spread head lice, with kids in close quarters, sleeping and playing together for extended periods of time.”

“No parent wants to get the call that their camper has head lice,” Watt said. Here are a few things you can do to decrease the odds that your child gets lice at camp:

  1. First and foremost, get a professional head check before camp. Make sure your child doesn’t already have head lice before camp starts. Many children have lice without knowing it. It can take up to two weeks before symptoms such as itching to start. Check again when your child gets home. A professional check is best because lice can be difficult to accurately diagnose. Our clinic offers head checks for $25 which is waived if lice are found and the child is treated. It’s a small price to pay for peace of mind.
  2. Know your facts. Lice spread primarily through head-to-head contact. They don’t fly or jump. Head lice can’t live anywhere but on a human scalp (hence the name ‘head’ lice), so encourage your children to avoid head-to-head and hair-to-hair contact, including hugs and selfies.
  3. Use a lice prevention product such as Lice Clinics of America’s preventive sprays and shampoos. They are non-toxic, easy to apply and serve as a kind of lice repellent for your child. They can be used daily for an extra layer of protection.
  4. Make sure your children use their own combs, brushes, clips, and anything else they use on their hair. While it is rare that lice spread through shared personal items, it can happen.
  5. Lice don’t die in water. They can hold their breath for up to eight hours, so children should only use their own towels to dry themselves after swimming or showering.

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,” Watt said. “Twelve million children under the age of 14 get head lice each year in the United States alone. It’s no different than catching a cold—your child just got lice from someone else.”

Watt also wants you to know that getting rid of head lice is easier than ever, thanks to Lice Clinics of America’s FDA-cleared, AirAllé® medical device. AirAllé uses heated air to dehydrate lice and eggs and has been clinically proven to kill live lice and more than 99 percent of eggs (nits) in a single treatment. The service takes about an hour and 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 in an hour or so, guaranteed,” Watt said.

To learn more or to schedule an appointment, visit https://texasliceremovalclinic.com, email info@texasliceremovalclinic.com, or call College Station (855) 464-8688, Tomball (832) 648-1619, or The Woodlands (832) 957-0373.

Lice Clinics of America® – College Station, Tomball, and The Woodlands Shares Safe Selfie Tips for National Selfie Day

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National Selfie Day is June 21, and Lice Clinics of America – College Station, Tomball, and The Woodlands wants families to know that while selfies can be fun, they have also been linked to an increase in cases of head lice.

“A pediatrician recently coined the term ‘social media lice’ because she was seeing so many teenagers with head lice, and she linked the cases to taking selfies,” said Watt owner of Lice Clinics of America – College Station, Tomball, and The Woodlands.

The College Station, Tomball, and The Woodlands clinic is seeing more cases of head lice among teenagers, a significant change in clients. Historically, lice outbreaks typically slow as children get older, as teens don’t do as much sharing of clothing or sleep close together as younger children do. The selfie phenomenon is changing this.

“The problem comes when kids taking photos of themselves crowd their heads together in order to fit in the picture,” Watt said. “Head-to-head contact is the primary way head lice spread, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).”

When heads touch it’s a lot easier for lice to crawl from one head to another.

“Lice don’t fly or jump, so the only way that they can spread is by physical contact with another human’s hair or head,” Watt said. “Kids also get head lice from sitting close together in a car, hugging, or when they share hair utensils and accessories.”

“When taking selfies, be careful not to let heads and hair touch,” Watt said. “We know kids want to be spontaneous, but no one wants to get head lice.”

In addition to avoiding head-to-head contact, wash and sterilize combs and brushes that may have been shared. Any clothing that is suspected of carrying lice should be placed in a dryer on high heat for at least 20 minutes.

Lice Clinics of America – College Station, Tomball, and The Woodlands is the area’s exclusive provider of lice treatment using the AirAllé® medical device. AirAllé is FDA-cleared and clinically proven to kill live lice and 99.2 percent of eggs through dehydration. Treatment takes about an hour and is guaranteed to be effective.

The College Station, Tomball, and The Woodlands clinic also offer a line of preventive products in the form of sprays and shampoos that service as a kind of lice repellent. The products are non-toxic and approved for daily use.

“We don’t want anyone to get head lice from selfies or anything else,” Watt said. “But if you do, come to our clinic and you will be lice-free in an hour, and we can help you stay that way, too.”

Lice Clinics of America – College Station, Tomball, and The Woodlands is one of 330 clinics in the Lice Clinics of America network in 33 countries. AirAllé has treated more than 950,000 cases of head lice worldwide with a success rate better than 99 percent.

To learn more or to schedule an appointment, visit https://texasliceremovalclinic.com, email info@texasliceremovalclinic.com, or call College Station (855) 464-8688, Tomball (832) 648-1619, or The Woodlands (832) 957-0373.

Lice Clinics of America® College Station, Tomball, and The Woodlands Salutes Dads on Father’s Day

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“Sometimes fathers are the unsung heroes in families when it comes to head lice,” said Sonia Watt, owner of Lice Clinics of America at College Station, Tomball, and The Woodlands. “When moms and kids are frantic, dad is often left to reassure them that everything will be okay.”

Not that dads can’t be frantic themselves. “There’s also times when desperate dads bring the family in for treatment,” Watt said. “Our message to all of them is, ‘your lice journey ends here.’”

This Father’s Day, Lice Clinics of America – College Station, Tomball, and The Woodlands is saluting dads. The clinic is College Station, Tomball, and The Woodlands’s leading head lice treatment center and the exclusive provider of lice treatment using AirAllé®, an FDA-cleared Class 1 medical device that has been clinically proven to kill live lice and more than 99 percent of eggs (nits). AirAllé uses carefully controlled heated air to dehydrate lice and eggs. Treatment takes about an hour and is guaranteed to be effective.

“We want dads to know that with the AirAllé device their family can be lice-free in an hour,” Watt said. “Traditional treatments can take weeks, and, in some cases, they don’t work because most lice have become immune to the pesticides.”

Watt is referring to a study published in the Journal of Medical Entomology that found that 98 percent of lice in most of the United States have developed a genetic resistance to pyrethroids, the class of pesticides used in traditional lice products. Pyrethroids have also been linked to developmental and behavior issues in children. The AirAllé medical device is effective against pyrethroid-resistant lice and non-resistant lice because it doesn’t rely on pesticides or chemicals.

“We want to make sure that dads and moms know the facts about head lice and head lice treatment,” Watt said. “Our solution is medically and clinically proven to be effective. Come to our clinic and you can be lice-free in an hour, guaranteed.”

AirAllé was invented by a dad confronted with head lice. A University of Utah research team was studying bird lice and found that the lice struggled to survive in the arid desert climate and often died of dehydration. When the daughter of one of the researchers got head lice, and traditional treatments didn’t work, he turned the research team’s attention to finding a way to dehydrate head lice. The idea for AirAllé was born, and after 10 years of development and trials, the device was cleared by the FDA as a safe and effective treatment for head lice.

To date, AirAllé has treated some 950,000 cases of head lice with a success rate better than 99 percent.

Lice Clinics of America – College Station, Tomball, and The Woodlands also offers a complete line of pesticide-free, home lice treatment and prevention products that are also guaranteed to be effective when used as directed.

“The best lice treatment is to prevent your children from getting lice in the first place,” Watt said. “Our preventive shampoos and sprays serve as a lice repellant and, like mosquito repellant, they keep the bugs away from your children.”

The College Station, Tomball, and The Woodlands clinics are two of 330 Lice Clinics of America treatment centers in 35 countries, making it the world’s largest network of professional lice treatment centers. To learn more or to schedule an appointment, visit https://texasliceremovalclinic.com, email info@texasliceremovalclinic.com, or call College Station (855) 464-8688, Tomball (832) 648-1619, or The Woodlands (832) 957-0373.

Lice Clinics of America® – College Station, Tomball, and The Woodlands Shares Head Lice Safety Tips for National Safety Month

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This June, the National Safety Council is sponsoring National Safety Month, a public awareness campaign to promote “reducing the leading causes of injury and death at work, on the road, and in our homes and communities.”

Lice Clinics of America – College Station, Tomball, and The Woodlands is taking this opportunity to call attention to safe head lice treatment.

“There are two important safety issues with head lice,” says Sonia Watt, owner of Lice Clinics of America – College Station, Tomball, and The Woodlands. “First, it’s important to understand how to avoid getting head lice in the first place. Second, people need to know that some retail lice products and home remedies can be risky and dangerous.”

“Head lice don’t really cause any health problems,” Watt said. “They’re a nuisance more than anything, but no one wants bugs in their hair. The best way to prevent head lice is to avoid head-to-head contact. Children get lice the most because they spend more time in close physical contact than adults.”

Then there’s the alleged cures for head lice that are often worse than the condition they are supposed to treat.

“Many parents don’t realize that the active ingredients in over-the-counter head lice treatment products are pesticides,” Watt said. “The most popular products use pyrethroids, a class of home and garden pesticides that have been linked to behavioral and developmental problems in children.”

“What makes things worse is that the products are mostly ineffective now because head lice have developed resistance to pyrethroids,” Watt said. “The most recent study published in the Journal of Medical Entomology found that 98 percent of lice in most states now carry a genetic resistance to pyrethroids.”

Home lice treatment “remedies” can also be dangerous, even deadly. Some internet sites recommend using kerosene to remove head lice, which is highly flammable—there have been multiple cases of severe burns from the practice. Mayonnaise is another popular home remedy for lice treatment. In 2016, a toddler suffocated when a plastic bag slipped over her face—the bag had been placed on her head to contain the mayonnaise.

Lice Clinics of America – College Station, Tomball, and The Woodlands provides head lice removal using a pesticide-free, FDA-cleared medical device known as AirAllé®. The device uses heated air to dehydrate lice and eggs in a matter of minutes. In clinical trials, AirAllé killed live lice and more than 98 percent of eggs. The device has been used to treat more than 950,000 cases of head lice with a success rate better than 99 percent.

Best of all, a single treatment only takes about an hour and is guaranteed to be effective. “If you come to our clinic with a case of head lice, you’ll leave lice-free an hour later,” Watt said.

Lice Clinics of America also makes a line of safe, pesticide-free, guaranteed home products for people that prefer home treatment. There’s no reason to expose yourself or your children to dangerous products or practices.

“People tend to panic when they discover head lice in their families,” Watt said, “and sometimes they try things that are not safe. We want everyone to know that we make dealing with head lice fast, safe, and easy.”

To learn more or to schedule an appointment, visit https://texasliceremovalclinic.com, email info@texasliceremovalclinic.com, or call College Station (855) 464-8688, Tomball (832) 648-1619, or The Woodlands (832) 957-0373.