In the News
head lice make headlines
This section includes news articles that have been published about Lice Clinics of America locally and nationally.
New Fort Walton Beach Business Kills Lice Using Heat
NWF Daily News
By Heather Osbourne
Posted Oct 15, 2018 at 1:43 PM
FORT WALTON BEACH — It was two years ago when Lesley Prince said her life “changed forever” after her four foster children returned home from school with itchy scalps.
Lice was foreign territory for Prince. She’d spent hundreds of dollars in pesticides trying to treat her children, but they continued to be sent home day after day by the school nurse.
“I literally didn’t know what to do,” Prince said. “I was ready to mortgage my house or take out a loan to get rid of this stuff. I was already hundreds of dollars into it and nothing would work.”
Prince, dressed in white scrubs with her hair tightly pulled back, spent a recent Tuesday treating lice patients at her new business Lice Clinics of America at 128 Eglin Parkway S.E. The franchise, which uses heat to dehydrate louse eggs, has a 100 percent lice-free guarantee after just one treatment.
Prince said the “signature treatment” at the clinic is $185.
“That comes with a guarantee as long as all of the family members are checked by us,” she said. “It’s a 30-day guarantee. This is a place where people can let us do all of the work. They’ve been dealing with it, normally, for so long. It’s usually weeks or months and they just can’t get rid of it.
“People are putting pesticides in their hair,” Prince continued. “You’re putting poison on the scalp of your child. This is hot air. We do a comb out and we have an active rinse. It’s nothing but natural products. These moms have been treating their children for weeks and they have sores on their heads from scratching and pesticides. Everybody is in agony.”
Prince said she decided to open her business after finding a Lice Clinics of America at her old home in Mississippi when she needed help with her own children. After putting up the business sign above the building on Labor Day, she said the phone hasn’t stopped ringing.
“I was that crying mom to them (Lice Clinics) like the crying moms who now call me asking for my help,” Prince said. “We’ve had two different sets of vacationers already. One was a family of seven and another was a family of six. … I also had a grandmother in her 80s who took care of her grandson.
“This is definitely a business, but it’s also what I consider a community service in a lot of ways.”
Ad Exec and Foster Mom Retires to Fight Lice Full-Time on Florida’s Emerald Coast
New Lice Clinics of America Treatment Center provides guaranteed, one-and-done lice treatments using FDA-cleared medical device
Fort Walton Beach, Florida
Lesley Prince’s head lice journey began two years ago when one of her four foster children contracted head lice in her home state of Mississippi.
“I tried every traditional remedy and even some I found online, called our pediatrician and got the prescription remedy for lice but none of them worked and my daughter was sent home from school for three days straight,” Lesley said. “I had to take off work, and she was frantic about missing so much school. Finally, the school nurse told me about the Lice Clinics of America® in our hometown.”
“By that time, all six of us had head lice,” Lesley said. “I called, we all went to the clinic, and we all left lice free.”
Lice Clinics of America is the exclusive provider of head lice treatment using the AirAllé® FDA-cleared medical device, clinically shown to kill live lice and more than 99 percent of eggs (nits) using heated air to dehydrate the lice and eggs. Most treatments take about an hour and are guaranteed to be effective.
Lesley was hooked. “At that point, I would have mortgaged my house to remove lice from our lives,” she said. “I was amazed at how easy, fast, and effective the treatment was.”
Lesley had been looking to relocate to Florida’s Emerald Coast, and when she found that the territory was available for a Lice Clinics of America treatment center, she jumped at the chance. Lesley has now opened Lice Clinics of America – Fort Walton Beach, in the heart of Emerald Coast region. The clinic provides screening, diagnosis and treatment options for people infested with head lice and is staffed by certified operators of the AirAllé medical device.
Many parents like Lesley try and fail to treat head lice with traditional products because head lice have become immune to the chemical pesticides in the most popular products. The most recent study in the Journal of Medical Entomology found that so-called “Super Lice” comprise 98 percent of head lice in most U.S. states. The pesticides used in lice products have also been linked to developmental and behavioral problems in children.
Newly retired from a 24-year career in advertising, Lesley knows how to spread the world about head lice and is eager to get started. “I have completed many years of professional selling skills training and still love to learn something new every day,” she said. “I have worked on festival committees, Main Street organizations and volunteered at Children’s hospitals for many years.
I am looking forward to getting involved in as many organizations as time allows in Northwest Florida to educate the community about this amazing solution.”
The AirAllé medical device is equally effective against “super lice” because it doesn’t rely on pesticides. The device has treated more than 950,000 cases of head lice worldwide with a success rate better than 99 percent.
Lice Clinics of America – Fort Walton Beach is located at 128 Eglin Parkway SE. The clinic is open seven days per week by appointment. The AirAllé treatment comes with a 30-day guarantee when all family members are treated or screened for head lice.
With more than 350 clinics in 36 countries, Lice Clinics of America (www.LiceClinicsOfAmerica.com) is the largest network of professional head lice treatment centers in the world. Lice Clinics of America and AirAllé (www.airalle.com) are brands owned by Larada Sciences™, Inc., which is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.
NBC Charlotte
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