How are head lice treated?

If someone has head lice, tell the people around the person, pick out the nits from the person's hair, and make sure all brushes, bedding, clothes, and other materials are clean. Learn more about this topic in this video of Dr. Oz.

They're itchy, icky, and almost invisible. For up to 12 million folks in the U.S. this year, head lice will be a hard-to-handle social crisis. Fortunately, it's not really a health problem. But like Courteney Cox when her daughter Coco got the itch no one wants to name, parents everywhere are horrified when their kids come home from a play date and need head lice treatment.

Once one person in your house gets lice, the creatures don’t stay put. Head lice can crawl on bedding and pillows -- and even stuffed animals -- and spread to every family member. What are head lice? They’re not disease-carrying scuds; they're just sesame seed-sized parasites that take patience and persistence to eradicate.

The good news is that head lice don’t signal that you or anyone else is dirty. As for how to treat lice, over-the-counter creams with 1% permethrin are effective for head lice removal (although the bugs are getting resistant). The newest head lice treatment on the market is a 5% benzyol alcohol lotion that kills head lice 92% of the time after two weekly applications. Don’t apply to hair that’s been freshly washed with a conditioning shampoo or rinsed with a conditioner, as it then won’t be able to kill the bugs. Make sure to leave the medicine on for the recommended treatment time. Once you’ve treated the lice, wash (at 130 degrees Fahrenheit) and dry (on a high heat setting) all clothes and bedding the bugged person came in contact with.

When the infestation is gone, keep it away by teaching your kids (and yourself) to avoid head-to-head contact and not to share combs, brushes, hats, scarves, or earphones. No lice, very nice.