LiceDoctors Head Lice Treatment Service Adds New Markets To Its Growing Business

HOUSTON - Dec. 1, 2013 - PRLog -- Forty years ago they met. Today Wendy Beck and Karen Sokoloff run the largest head lice treatment business in the U.S. Head lice are one of the biggest causes of absenteeism from school.   Wendy had the initial concept of the business; Karen contributed the initial idea of how to bring the business to a national level.  Wendy is a whiz with the numbers and manages every day operations; Karen is the marketing person and likes to think of ways to grow the business.  Both of them think the other works harder than they do; both of them are workaholics,  and both of them love what they do.

LiceDoctors Head Lice Treatment Service is the fastest growing business in a fast growing industry. The company currently operates in oversixty cities, by far the most of any lice treatment service in the country. LiceDoctors hires and trains technicians to go to homes of families with head lice infestations. Currently the company has approximately 150 technicians who work for them and are on call to be dispatched to homes. Many of these technicians are health care professionals, some school nurses. All have had head lice experience before joining the company and undergo a rigorous training program.

According to Wendy, who has 18 years of experience in the lice treatment field, “We offer the unique combination of the expertise and resources of a national company with a solid heritage and the personal touch of a local business. Our technicians know how stressful head lice infestations are for families, and they are trained to put the family at ease. In addition, we educate families on how to prevent head lice in the future. We show families how we get rid of the lice and nits, and explain how people get head lice, how to use the lice comb for treatment, and how to deal with lice in the home,

Wendy’s husband, Dr. Stephen Beck, is a board certified internist; 18 years ago he developed the protocol that is used by LiceDoctors. Dr. Beck researched lice treatment options and created and copy-righted this treatment plan to coordinate with the life cycle of the louse. According to Karen, “The treatment plan is brilliant.  Basically, we suffocate the live bugs and physically remove the nits. If you leave nits in the hair, the case starts up again. Since the nits camouflage, they can be difficult to identify. That is the value-added of what we do. As long as the clients follow a simple follow-up plan after we have treated them, the plan is 100% effective.”

The demand for services of LiceDoctors is so strong that the company recently added  five new markets to their current base: Chicago, Indianapolis, Tulsa, Milwaukee, and Greeville-Spartanburg. The incidence is rising due in part to the growing resistance of lice to the chemical treatments.  “Lice mutate and the hearty strains are now dubbed ‘super lice’”, Wendy reports. “These bugs are highly resistant to chemicals. We have seen thousands of families who have used chemical treatments and still have live bugs in their heads. Unfortunately, parents think that their children are lice-free and send them back to school in a contagious state. Adding to the problem is that many schools have dropped their ‘no nit’ policies as children were missing too much school.”

LiceDoctors has recently launched an educational campaign through a series of webinars and has added an education to its web site. According to Karen, “we are trying to educate all constituents here-school nurses, administrators, pediatricians, and parents. Until people understand how to identify lice and nits, and what works and doesn’t work to get rid of them, the problem is going to continue to escalate.”

LiceDoctors can be reached at 800-224-2537 or online at www.licedoctors.com.