There is a large amount of conflicting information available to parents and health care practitioners on the best way to treat head lice. For parents this makes a distressing event even more frustrating.

Wet combing is a widely recommended method of detection and treatment of head lice by local health authorities. The method is particularly suited to parents who are searching for a method that does not involve the use of; malathion (an organophosphorus compound and cholinesterase inhibitor), permethrin, pyrethrum, treatments with high concentrations of essential oils or silicone based treatments such as dimethicone.

Wet combing is recommended by most state health authorities in Australia as an alternative method for tackling the problem of insecticide resistant head lice.

The wet combing technique involves combing wet hair with a fine-tooth comb using a suitable combing aid such as conditioner. The combing aid acts as both a lubricant for the fine tooth nit comb as well as to slow down or stun lice. If evidence of lice is found, the process should be repeated each week for 2 weeks in order to remove lice emerging from eggs before they can spread. The downside of this method is that the success rate is entirely dependent on the dilligence of the operator. Thorough wet combing can give up to 70% removal rates which, when repeated at 7 and 14 days, can give good results. Casual or inattentive combing will give significantly lower success rates.

Effectiveness of Wet Combing (Bug Busting or Nit Busting)

(Reproduced from Pharmaceutical Press, the publishing division of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.)

The evidence for the effectiveness of wet combing is conflicting. A large-scale trial of over 4000 patients published in the Lancet in 2000 led to the conclusion that wet combing was much less successful than malathion in eradicating infection and that it should not be regarded as a first-line treatment.¹

However, a 2005 smaller trial reported in the British Medical Journal found that wet combing was four times more effective than chemical products for eliminating head lice.²

A more recent 2007 literature review of five studies concluded that there is limited evidence to suggest that wet combing is an effective treatment for pediculosis capitis, although cure rates are variable; that parents prefer this treatment option over that of pediculicides; and that treatment for a longer duration than the generally recommended 2 weeks may improve success rates.³

Wet Combing the Quit Nits Way

The Quit Nits Combing Solution includes 2 nit combs and has been specifically formulated to make the task of wet combing easier. Like all Quit Nits products, the Quit Nits combing solution contains; No chemical pesticides, No nut oils, No Sodium lauryl or laureth sulphate, No parabens, No mineral oils and No genetically modified ingredients.

 

 

Sources
<sub>1. Roberts RJ, Casey D, Morgan DA, Petrovic M. Comparison of wet combing with malathion for treatment of head lice in the UK: a pragmatic randomised controlled trial. Lancet 2000; 356: 540–544.
2. Hill N, Moor G, Cameron MMet al. Single blind randomised controlled trial comparing the Bug Buster kit with over the counter insecticide treatments against head lice in the United Kingdom. Br Med J 2005; 331: 384–387.
3. Tebruegge M, Runnacles J. Is wet combing effective in children with pediculosis capitis infestation? Arch Dis Child 2007; 92: 818–820.</sub>