Second Treatment ?

HOW CAN I TELL THAT THE TREATMENT HAS KILLED THE LICE?

If a head lice product works, lice will be dead within 20 minutes. You can test if the lice are killed by doing the following:

After 20 minutes, use a fine tooth comb to comb the hair, and after each sweep from roots to tip, wipe the combings onto a tissue.

Repeat this many times until the whole head has been combed at least twice and little treatment formulation is visible on the hair.

Examine the tissues and see if lice are alive or dead. A magnifying lens is not needed to do this, but will help in the visually impaired. Grade each lice as dead (no movement at all), inactive but alive (louse is stationary, but is moving legs or antennae), or active (louse is crawling on the tissue).

Assess success of treatment and possible insecticide resistance.

If all lice are dead, infestation is sensitive to product used.

If some lice are inactive but alive, infestation may be partly resistant to treatment, but regard the louse population as "sensitive" if no lice are active.

If some lice are active, infestation is resistant.

For a sensitive population of head lice, the current treatment has been successful, but embryos in eggs will most likely survive. Retreat in 7 days using the same product.

For resistant lice, the current treatment has been unsuccessful. See section "If lice aren't killed, what should I do?".

 IS A SECOND TREATMENT NECESSARY?

Yes, in almost all cases a second treatment is needed since no head lice treatment kills 100% of the eggs. So if the first treatment killed all climbers, at the second treatment one would expect only juveniles, hatched from eggs during the 7 day period, and no adults. You must retreat on day 7 with the same product that worked on the first treatment, and evaluate efficacy using the same protocol.

If lice are found at the second treatment, and they are killed by this treatment, there are two options:

retreatment with same preparation a third time in 7 days to verify complete cure, or

7 days after the second treatment, put conditioner in the hair, comb with a fine tooth comb and check for lice.

The choice of option depends on your philosophy, option 1 being chosen if you want to make sure all lice are killed, and option 2 is chosen if you wish to minimise exposure to insecticides. If treatment has been as successful as possible, only juvenile lice should be found at the second treatment, and no lice should be found on the third treatment or the third examination.

If no lice are found at the second treatment, the case has been cured.