What is CoolSculpting

CoolSculpting is an FDA approved, non-surgical fat reduction procedure that uses cooling technology to target and freeze fat cells. 

What areas can you treat with CoolSculpting?

Imagen has used CoolSculpting to treat the most common areas of stubborn fat including the abdomen, love handles, chin, arms, and thighs.

How does CoolSculpting work?

Each treatment will get you about a 20-25% reduction in the thickness of the fat layer.  That doesn’t mean 20-25% of your whole body.  You will definitely get better results with repeated treatments to a single area and we usually recommend that a patient treat a single area fully rather than trying to spread out the applications over their whole body.  In other words, you’ll get better results if you have 4 applications to your lower tummy than if you do 1 to your lower tummy, 1 to your upper tummy and one to each inner thigh.

What are the side effects of CoolSculpting?

As a noninvasive treatment, CoolSculpting is well tolerated with few risks.  It is not uncommon for patients to have some bruising and possibly mild swelling after a treatment.  This can typically be helped by wearing some sort of compression garment (similar to Spanx).  

There will likely be some mild soreness to the area, like after you do a hard abs workout.  Patients rarely need anything stronger than ibuprofen or acetaminophen to control the discomfort. Many patients have some numbness in the treated area as well.  This is caused by the swelling and usually resolves on its own after a few weeks.

A rare complication of CoolSculpting is paradoxical adipose hyperplasia.  This is where, instead of shrinking, the treated area actually gets larger.  It has an incidence of <0.01% and can be treated with liposuction if necessary.

Does CoolSculpting Work?

CoolSculpting works.  However, many of the advertisements that you see with before and after photos are patients who have had 6-12 CoolSculpting treatments. It is important to have realistic expectations as far as what CoolSculpting can do for you.  If you are hoping to get a bikini model body with just one treatment, you will likely be disappointed.

Should I get CoolSculpting or Liposuction?

If you are looking for a treatment with no downtime or incisions, CoolSculpting may be a good option for you. CoolSculpting works best if you have small pockets of stubborn fat. You also have to have enough skin laxity for the applicator to pull the tissues in. If your skin is too tight or the fat is too thick, the applicator won’t be able to function at its full potential, and your results will be less than ideal.

It’s important to recognize that individual results and experiences may vary. Some patients require multiple cycles over multiple sessions to achieve their desired result; this take months to years to achieve. Often, this causes the overall investment in CoolSculpting to be more than a single liposuction procedure, which can deliver up to 75% reduction with immediate results that continue to improve with healthy diet and exercise.

Why should I get CoolSculpting at Imagen?

One of the benefits of choosing Imagen for your CoolSculpting in Omaha is having an experienced physician – not a nurse or technician – do your treatments.  Also, many clinics only offer CoolSculpting for fat reduction where Imagen offers several solutions. During your consultation, our board-certified cosmetic surgeons will present the best options for you to achieve your desired results. If you decide that liposuction is the better option, you won’t have to go somewhere else and start the consultation process over again.