Whats wrong with just looking at my childs scalp to see if lice or nits are present?
The presence of nits (louse eggs) does not prove active infestation. These may be inactive, dead nits from a prior infestation. Or the white specks may not even be nits at all. The only way to prove active infestation is to find actual crawling lice. Finding crawling-phase head lice by looking at the scalp is not easy. Dr. R.J. Roberts, a noted British head lice researcher writes visual inspection of the hair and scalp is widely practiced, but this approach may miss three quarters of infestations.A better method is the Lice Identification Test (see above). In Dr. Pearlmans experience,a properly performed LIT is more than 99% reliable in proving or disproving the presence of a lice infestation.
