Once you’ve established that you, or a member of your family has head lice, you will probably want to get rid of them! For that you should use a treatment method recommended by your healthcare professional such as your pharmacist, nurse or doctor.

Don’t forget – products to treat head lice infections do not prevent them and so they should only be used when a live louse has been found.

Eggs & Nits
Don’t forget – you should not use head louse treatments unless you find a live moving louse. Many treatments will leave the dead eggs or nits (empty eggshells) stuck to the hairs – and even though they cannot cause further infection you may want to remove them with a ‘nit comb’ – a metal toothed comb which catches the eggs in the teeth. Alternatively eggs can be removed using a pair of tweezers or the fingernails to pull the egg along the hair.

If you have eggs in the hair that may be alive then it is important to remove those eggs and/or continue to check for any newly hatched lice (remember it takes about 7 days for an egg to hatch).

Head Lice
If you do take steps to treat a head lice infection it is unlikely that they will go away of their own accord. Different treatments have different regimes, which should be followed to achieve the best results. Any advice given to you by your pharmacist nurse or doctor should also be used.

If you use a medicated treatment you may be recommended to use two treatments one week apart – this is to make sure that any baby lice that hatch out of eggs that were not killed by the first treatment are killed by the second treatment before they grow into adults and lay more eggs. This is an important step to remember in the successful treatment of head lice infections.

There are various treatments on the market, to find out more about the Full Marks range click here.

After a successful treatment don’t forget to keep checking on a regular basis for any new infections.

What if the lice are still there after an infection?
If you still have lice after you have completed a treatment, there may be a number of reasons for this, which you should discuss with your pharmacist, nurse or doctor. The reasons for treatment failure will depend upon the type of treatment used, however you could consider the following questions:

• Are there definitely live lice still present? Remember eggs, nits and itching may all be present after a successful treatment.
• Did you use a treatment recommended by your pharmacist, nurse or doctor?
• Did you follow the instructions on the pack along with any advice from your pharmacist, nurse or doctor?
• Have you carried out the recommended number of treatments?
• Are the lice that you have found newly hatched lice from surviving eggs?
• Is it possible that there has been re-infection from another contact? (See section on Contact Tracing)
• Do you think that the lice may be resistant to the head louse treatment you used (i.e. if they did not seem to be affected by the product)?

If you have had a treatment failure, whatever the reason, and you need further advice you should speak to your pharmacist, nurse or doctor about what to do next.