CoolSculpting is a non-surgical treatment, proven to eliminate stubborn fat. Like all medical treatments, it’s important to seek out an experienced provider. We hate to brag but love to flaunt our providers’ expertise and dedication here at RejuvenationMD: we’ve got two in-house CoolSculpting Masters!
Providers have been killing fat cells with CoolSculpting for over 10 years. It’s a safer, less expensive alternative to liposuction–without the downtime–that yields beautiful results. If you’re wondering what the difference is between CoolSculpting and liposuction, read our post here.
What is CoolSculpting?
When doctors discovered that intense cold kills fat cells and fat cells freeze at a higher temperature than the skin, CoolSculpting was born. Using cryolipolysis, CoolSculpting freezes targeted areas of fat to -11 degrees, the temperature proven to make the fat cells burst and die.
Who’s a Candidate for CoolSculpting?
The idea of simply freezing away unwanted fat is amazing, but not everyone is a candidate for the procedure. Dr. Tsitsis, founder of RejuvenationMD, always says, “If you have squeezable fat, you have freezable fat.”
Squeezable fat is subcutaneous fat below the skin that you can pinch. Conversely, visceral fat beneath the muscle and around the organs, cannot be treated with CoolSculpting. When people complain the treatment didn’t work for them, it’s because they weren’t candidates for the treatment. This is why it’s so important to be seen by an experienced CoolSculpting provider who undergoes continual education.
What Does CoolSculpting Treat?
We know it treats fat, but there are specific areas of fat that can be treated by CoolSculpting. We can’t stress enough the importance of finding an experienced provider who’s trained to treat target areas of fat while maintaining their patients’ body shapes.
The FDA has cleared 9 specific treatment areas:
1. Abdomen
2. Flanks/Love Handles
3. Inner Thighs
4. Outer Thighs
5. Back/Bra Fat
6. Banana Roll (beneath the butt)
7. Upper Arms
8. Above the Knees
9. Under the Chin (double chin)
If you’ve got stubborn fat in the areas above, talk to your provider to address them. Unfortunately, if there are areas of fat that aren’t included in the list above, you won’t be able to treat them with CoolSculpting.
What Should You Expect During Your Treatment?
After you’ve been approved for treatment, your provider will ask you to arrive showered, wearing comfortable clothes. Avoid applying lotion to your treatment area prior to arrival. Your provider will mark the appropriate treatment areas.
Once you’re comfortably sitting or lying down, your provider will apply a specially patented skin protection agent that prevents the cold from damaging the skin before applying the CoolSculpting applicators.
Expect Some Tingling and Cold!
For some, the most uncomfortable part of the treatment is getting the area to -11 degrees. The applicators vacuum in the treatment and begin to cool. As the temperature drops, you’ll feel the cold and maybe some tingling, and then the area will go numb.
Patients normally work, read or watch TV during their treatment. The treatment itself is very quick — about 35 minutes depending on the area. Once complete, your provider will remove the applicator and begin massaging the area to break up the frozen fat cells.
This is a critical step in the overall treatment. RejuvenationMD uses our Z Wave wand to massage the area because Z Wave helps obliterate any remaining fat cells and while deeply breaking apart the crystalized fat so it can be more easily absorbed by the blood stream. Our practice regularly achieves 25-30% of fat loss with each CoolSculpting treatment.
Speedy Procedure, Speedy Recovery
After the massage is complete the area will feel cold and tingly as the temperature rises. Some patients may be a little tender in the treatment area but that’s the extent of the downtime expected from the treatment.
Patients can immediately resume normal activity. In fact, at RejuvenationMD in Washington, many of our patients get treated on their lunch breaks because it’s an easy in-and-out treatment. We just recommend wearing comfortable clothes on your treatment day (like leggings or a pencil skirt) because it can be uncomfortable to put on skinny jeans immediately after treatment.
When Can You Expect Results from Your CoolSculpting Treatment?
Patients will realize their results about 3 months after treatment, though many of our patients. report noticing results in as early as 3 weeks. It’s important to understand that the body needs time to process and eliminate the crystalized fat cells. Once your system has flushed the dead fat cells you’ll notice a reduction in inches in the treatment area.
CoolSculpting is NOT a weight loss solution, it eliminates fat cells in specific areas which is why you will notice that the treatment areas are smaller. Depending on our patient’s goals, our standard protocol is to treat the area twice for best results.
What Are the Side-Effects of CoolSculpting?
One of the reasons RejuvenationMD was an early adopter of CoolSculpting is because there are very few side effects, the most typical are mild and temporary. And, it’s the most comfortable and effective non-surgical solution to fat loss in aesthetics.
The immediate and temporary side effects that patients may experience are redness, swelling, numbness and tenderness of the treatment area, however these resolve in a few days. There have been very rare cases of paradoxical adipose hyperplasia (PAH) that has an incidence of 0.00051% or 1 in 20,000 patients. PAH is more likely to happen to men. RejuvenationMD has performed thousands and thousands of treatments over the years and we’ve never had a patient experience PAH. However, if a patient were to get PAH, which is the hardening of fat in a treatment area, there is a way to resolve this at no cost to the patient.
Is On-Going Maintenance Necessary?
If you are finished with pregnancy, you are finished making new fat cells— unless you gain an unordinary amount of weight over a short period of time. So, once your fat cells are treated with CoolSculpting, those cells are eliminated for good.
CoolSculpting (and liposuction) are tools to help jumpstart a healthier lifestyle. You do not need to maintain a healthy diet after CoolSculpting to maintain your results, but it’s better for your overall health and wellbeing if you do. Many of our patients see their results and are inspired to make lasting lifestyle changes by incorporating more movement into their day, choosing to replace processed foods with whole & healthy foods to improve their health and vitality.
Looking for CoolSculpting in Seattle or Washington State?
If you have questions, or are exploring whether CoolSculpting is right for you, schedule a complimentary consultation with one of our providers. RejuvenationMD is home to two CoolSculpting Masters, all of our providers attend on-going training and are experts in non-surgical body contouring treatments.
That’s why RejuvenationMD performs more CoolSculpting treatments than any practice in Washington’s North Sound area.
To learn more about CoolSculpting and other non-surgical body contouring treatments, contact an aesthetic expert at RejuvenationMD in Bellingham or Burlington, Washington.
