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CoolSculpting®: Cool Questions & Answers

Let’s go over a question list about CoolSculpting® by ZELTIQ™ the new FDA-cleared, noninvasive way to remove unwanted fat and “Slim without Surgery.”

Questions: How much will I feel during treatment?
Answer: The applications of the cooling chambers to the skin and fat are really quite comfortable. You will feel something to begin with, mostly the suction of your fat into the cooling chamber. During the treatment, you won’t feel much because the cooling numbs as it is applied. In the first few minutes and at the end of treatment, you feel this “waking up” tingling, when the unwanted fat begins to thaw and natural body heat returns to the fat.

Question: Well, if treatment doesn’t hurt that much, how much will I feel after?
Answer: Most patients say that there wasn’t much discomfort after treatment; their skin felt a bit numb, there was some sensitivity, and maybe there was some bruising, but that all went away quickly. There are some patients who have had discomfort afterward, almost a nerve pain like-feeling, but it has resolved in all patients. Typically, after traditional liposuction in Portland, Oregon, patients have been instructed to wear a form-fitting compression garments after their procedure to avoid this kind of swelling, bruising, and discomfort, and achieve the “best results.” So the big question with CoolSculpting is: why not use a compression garment, just like after liposuction? It has worked so well for all of these years, so we recommend that CoolSculpting patients should wear them for a few days, maybe a week, (not the weeks needed after lasers and liposuction). What have we found? Wow, what a big difference for comfort after CoolSculpting, with a few days use of a compression garment.

Question: Do I have too much fat to have CoolSculpting?
Answer: The answer lies in the plan: larger areas with more fat will take more treatment sessions, smaller areas with less fat will take fewer. If you want to enhance your tummy but you have only a small amount of fat, we’ll set a plan for your first treatment to be two cooling applicators, maybe a smaller one for the upper tummy, and maybe a medium or larger one for the lower tummy. You can lose up to 30% of your fat in the first treatment. Want to lose more? The second treatment can be performed in the same area (i.e. tummy) as soon as 2 months later. Let’s just see where the most amount of fat is left to lose. For example, if the sides of the tummy need more treatment, the cooling applicators would then be applied where the fat remains, and the same can be done for a third session, letting the body decide where we need to place the next session of cooling applicators.

Question: Can I do my tummy and muffin top the same day?
Answer: Yes, you can treat one area right after the other the same day. If the tummy needs two cool applicators, i.e. one for the upper tummy and one for the lower tummy, then you can always come back the next day and treat the right muffin top, and the left muffin top.

Question: What does Cooling Cycles mean?
Answer: Each cooling cycle is the application of one cooling chamber, which takes about an hour for each application. So, for example the right and left love handles treatment takes about two and a half hours from start to finish.

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