For any kind of medical problem or condition which comes along, there are always a wide variety of home remedies that people try to promote as the way to deal with the issue instead of going to a doctor and taking the appropriate steps to solve the problem. There are a lot of reasons why people do not want to go to doctors – aside from the expense, many people find that they do not like going to doctors simply because they do not want to admit that there is a problem which only a doctor can solve. However, if you or someone who you know has head lice, not taking the appropriate course of action will simply lead to the lice infestation taking longer to remove, and the longer that a head lice infestation is left untreated the more likely it is to lead to more serious consequences such as infection.
Some of the kinds of home remedies that people have suggested for head lice are truly ridiculous – things such as mayonnaise, Listerine, mouthwash and vinegar have all been suggested as possible cures for lice and are always based on purely anecdotal evidence. If there was any kind of consistent evidence that these kind of “treatments” worked on head lice, then it would have been recognized by the medical establishment by now – the fact that it has not been means that any situation in which these kinds of things have been used on head lice and the head lice have disappeared were actually due to other causes or were simply flukes.
When there is a situation which would normally require getting some kind of professional help, people will always look for the simplest solution and they will try to find simple things around them which they can use to treat the condition. However, trying to avoid going to the doctor or taking your child to the doctor will only result in the problem going on for longer and the danger of things getting worse increases the more that you put off your visit. On the other hand, the treatments which your doctor can recommend and prescribe have been tested and shown to be effective with proven results. This means that your best chances of dealing with your head lice problem is to talk to your doctor and get the kind of help that you really need.
What kinds of treatments are these? The combination of using a lice comb to remove living lice (cutting the hair may also be effective in some cases, although it is not always necessary) as well as using a chemical shampoo or gel to cleanse the hair and repel living lice or kill the lice and their eggs should help you to remove the lice infestation and get back to living a normal life. Also, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and you can help prevent further outbreaks of lice by teaching your child not to share head coverings with other people.