Key TakeawaysSklice, a lice treatment that was only available with a prescription, will now be sold over-the-counter.Only one dose is needed to kill live lice and application time is 10 minutes. Combing is not needed afterward.Dermatologists confirm that Sklice is effective in treating head lice.

Key Takeaways

Sklice, a lice treatment that was only available with a prescription, will now be sold over-the-counter.Only one dose is needed to kill live lice and application time is 10 minutes. Combing is not needed afterward.Dermatologists confirm that Sklice is effective in treating head lice.

On October 27, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it had approved the single-use lotionhead licetreatment,Sklice(ivermectin lotion 0.5%), to be sold over-the-counter.

The treatment will no longer require a prescription, which means that consumers will be able quickly and effectively treat a lice infestation without the need to use a nit-comb or a trip to the dermatologist or doctor.

How to Prevent Lice

“This is great news, Sklice is a great product,”Bruce Robinson, MD, a board-certified adult and pediatric dermatologist and clinical professor of dermatology at Lennox Hill Hospital, tells Verywell. “Prescription lice treatment can be hard to get and some OTC treatments aren’t very effective. This will make Sklice more accessible for patient care.”

The switch was permitted because Sklice’s manufacturer, Arbor Pharmaceuticals, proved that the drug is safe and effective when used as directed (carefully following the instructions on the product label) and can be used safely without the supervision of a healthcare professional.

How Lice is Transmitted

Head lice do not jump and are most commonly transmitted through head-to-head contact with someone who has live lice (adult lice).

How Contagious Are Lice?

When a child has lice, they might have to stay home from school until the treatment is successful.

However, the AAP discourages “no-nit school policies,” which can negatively affect a child’s education as well as contribute to the stigma surrounding head lice.

How to Check for Lice

All household members and people who have close contact with someone who has lice will need to be checked for live lice and nits. However, medicines that treat lice (called pediculicide treatments) should only be used on someone with an active infestation.

What Lice Look Like

If you think your child has lice, the AAP recommends taking the following steps to check them for an infestation.

Spotting Live Lice and NitsLive lice are hard to find because they avoid light and move quickly. Nits will look like small white or yellow-brown specks and be firmly attached to the hair near the scalp.The easiest place to find nits is at the hairline at the back of the neck or behind the ears. Nits can be confused with dandruff, dirt particles, or hair spray droplets. The best way to tell the difference is that nits are firmly attached to hair, while dandruff, dirt, or other particles are not.

Spotting Live Lice and Nits

Live lice are hard to find because they avoid light and move quickly. Nits will look like small white or yellow-brown specks and be firmly attached to the hair near the scalp.The easiest place to find nits is at the hairline at the back of the neck or behind the ears. Nits can be confused with dandruff, dirt particles, or hair spray droplets. The best way to tell the difference is that nits are firmly attached to hair, while dandruff, dirt, or other particles are not.

Live lice are hard to find because they avoid light and move quickly. Nits will look like small white or yellow-brown specks and be firmly attached to the hair near the scalp.

The easiest place to find nits is at the hairline at the back of the neck or behind the ears. Nits can be confused with dandruff, dirt particles, or hair spray droplets. The best way to tell the difference is that nits are firmly attached to hair, while dandruff, dirt, or other particles are not.

How to Treat Lice

There are both OTC and prescription medications available to treat lice. Regardless of the product you choose, always follow the instructions on the label. If you are not sure how to use a lice treatment or if you think it hasn’t worked, talk to your doctor.

Sklice: No Nit-Comb Needed

Most lice treatment products rely on the time-consuming post-treatment process of using a nit-comb to carefully remove all remaining nits (eggs) from a person’s hair.

Deirdre Hooper, MDThe biggest problem with lice treatment is that it is time-consuming.

Deirdre Hooper, MD

The biggest problem with lice treatment is that it is time-consuming.

“It is a great treatment,”Deirdre Hoo per, MD, a board-certified dermatologist and clinical professor of dermatology at both Louisiana State University and Tulane University, tells Verywell. “The biggest problem with lice treatment is that it is time-consuming. Children get it and bring it home and trying to get lice out of your three kids' hair takes a lot of time and moms are busy. No one does a good job of combing.”

A study published inThe New England Journal of Medicinein 2012 reported that 74% of patients who received a one-time dose of ivermectin 0.5% with no combing were lice- and nit-free after 15 days. Only 18% of patients that used a vehicle control product were lice and nit-free after 15 days.

Ivermectin’s method of action targets nerve and muscle cells of a louse, causing paralysis and death.

The 9 Best Lice Treatments

OTC Lice Treatments

Prescription Treatments

How to Get Rid of Lice

Comb-Out Method

The comb-out method can be used to help find nits and lice as well as to remove nits from the hair. However, it should not be relied on to treat an active lice infestation.

You should wash all clothes, bed linens, towels, and hats that have been used within two days before head lice were found. You do not need to throw these items away, but they do need to be treated in hot water and dried on high heat.

What This Means For YouLice treatments, including Sklice, should only be used if you or a family member has an active infestation. If you are not sure if a family member has lice or if you used a lice treatment but it has not worked, talk to your healthcare provider. You might need to see a board-certified dermatologist.

What This Means For You

Lice treatments, including Sklice, should only be used if you or a family member has an active infestation. If you are not sure if a family member has lice or if you used a lice treatment but it has not worked, talk to your healthcare provider. You might need to see a board-certified dermatologist.

Negative Stigma

According to a review published inFrontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiologyin January 2020, head lice have been living off of human blood for thousands of years and have been a common nuisance throughout human evolution.

Associating head lice with poor hygiene and dirty hair is a false stereotype that has led to people with lice being classified as dirty, poor, or unkempt, and has created a pervasive negative stigma.

“There is a stigma that those with lice are unclean or have dirty hair and nothing could be further from the truth,” Robinson says. “Lice feed off of blood from the scalp; it does not matter if the hair is clean or dirty.”

Head lice are found worldwide and do not cause serious illness or carry disease. It doesn’t matter how clean, dirty, rich, or poor a person or place is—everyone is fair game when it comes to getting head lice.

12 SourcesVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Office of the Commissioner.FDA approves lotion for nonprescription use to treat head lice.U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.Prescription to over-the-counter (OTC) switch list.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).Head lice: epidemiology & risk factors.Devore CD, Schutze GE.Head lice.PEDIATRICS. 2015;135(5):e1355-e1365. doi:10.1542/peds.2015-0746Pariser D, Meinking T, Bell M, Ryan W.Topical 0.5% ivermectin lotion for treatment of head lice.The New England Journal of Medicine. NEJMoal200107. doi: 0.1056/NEJMoa1200107Skerrett PJ, Havard Health Blog.New anti-lice lotion is good news for nitpickers.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).Head lice-treatment.National Institutes of Health (NIH).Permethrin lotion 1%.TaroPharma.Ovide-prescribing information.Lachlan Pharmaceuticals.ULESFIA - prescribing information.ParaPRO LLC.Natroba - prescribing information.Amanzougaghene N, Fenollar F, Raoult D, Mediannikov O.Where are we with human lice? a review of the current state of knowledge.Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2020;9:474. Published 2020 Jan 21. doi:10.3389/fcimb.2019.00474

12 Sources

Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Office of the Commissioner.FDA approves lotion for nonprescription use to treat head lice.U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.Prescription to over-the-counter (OTC) switch list.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).Head lice: epidemiology & risk factors.Devore CD, Schutze GE.Head lice.PEDIATRICS. 2015;135(5):e1355-e1365. doi:10.1542/peds.2015-0746Pariser D, Meinking T, Bell M, Ryan W.Topical 0.5% ivermectin lotion for treatment of head lice.The New England Journal of Medicine. NEJMoal200107. doi: 0.1056/NEJMoa1200107Skerrett PJ, Havard Health Blog.New anti-lice lotion is good news for nitpickers.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).Head lice-treatment.National Institutes of Health (NIH).Permethrin lotion 1%.TaroPharma.Ovide-prescribing information.Lachlan Pharmaceuticals.ULESFIA - prescribing information.ParaPRO LLC.Natroba - prescribing information.Amanzougaghene N, Fenollar F, Raoult D, Mediannikov O.Where are we with human lice? a review of the current state of knowledge.Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2020;9:474. Published 2020 Jan 21. doi:10.3389/fcimb.2019.00474

Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Office of the Commissioner.FDA approves lotion for nonprescription use to treat head lice.U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.Prescription to over-the-counter (OTC) switch list.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).Head lice: epidemiology & risk factors.Devore CD, Schutze GE.Head lice.PEDIATRICS. 2015;135(5):e1355-e1365. doi:10.1542/peds.2015-0746Pariser D, Meinking T, Bell M, Ryan W.Topical 0.5% ivermectin lotion for treatment of head lice.The New England Journal of Medicine. NEJMoal200107. doi: 0.1056/NEJMoa1200107Skerrett PJ, Havard Health Blog.New anti-lice lotion is good news for nitpickers.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).Head lice-treatment.National Institutes of Health (NIH).Permethrin lotion 1%.TaroPharma.Ovide-prescribing information.Lachlan Pharmaceuticals.ULESFIA - prescribing information.ParaPRO LLC.Natroba - prescribing information.Amanzougaghene N, Fenollar F, Raoult D, Mediannikov O.Where are we with human lice? a review of the current state of knowledge.Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2020;9:474. Published 2020 Jan 21. doi:10.3389/fcimb.2019.00474

U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Office of the Commissioner.FDA approves lotion for nonprescription use to treat head lice.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.Prescription to over-the-counter (OTC) switch list.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).Head lice: epidemiology & risk factors.

Devore CD, Schutze GE.Head lice.PEDIATRICS. 2015;135(5):e1355-e1365. doi:10.1542/peds.2015-0746

Pariser D, Meinking T, Bell M, Ryan W.Topical 0.5% ivermectin lotion for treatment of head lice.The New England Journal of Medicine. NEJMoal200107. doi: 0.1056/NEJMoa1200107

Skerrett PJ, Havard Health Blog.New anti-lice lotion is good news for nitpickers.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).Head lice-treatment.

National Institutes of Health (NIH).Permethrin lotion 1%.

TaroPharma.Ovide-prescribing information.

Lachlan Pharmaceuticals.ULESFIA - prescribing information.

ParaPRO LLC.Natroba - prescribing information.

Amanzougaghene N, Fenollar F, Raoult D, Mediannikov O.Where are we with human lice? a review of the current state of knowledge.Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2020;9:474. Published 2020 Jan 21. doi:10.3389/fcimb.2019.00474

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