Cool Sculpting has become a tremendously popular non-surgical body contouring method these days. The stubborn fat that denies leaving your body, even after regular exercising and following a healthy diet, is treated and removed from your body using cool sculpting.
But, is cool sculpting a safe option? What will happen to the skin after cool sculpting? These are the common questions that pop up in everyone’s mind. This article aims at providing information regarding cool sculpting and its effects on the skin.
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What is cool sculpting?
Cool Sculpting is the process of freezing fat cells and killing them. Also known as cryolipolysis, cool sculpting was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2010. During cool sculpting, the part from which you wish to remove excess fat is treated. That body part is frozen for around an hour to kill all the fat cells. The dead fat cells are removed from the body by the liver naturally.
What happens to your skin after cool sculpting?
There are no long term changes seen in the skin after cool sculpting. However, certain side effects are visible to a few weeks or up to a month after cool sculpting, which disappear over time.
Immediately after cool sculpting, you can see redness, minor swelling, and bruising of the skin in the area of treatment. You can also notice numbness, skin sensitivity and muscle cramping for a few weeks after cool sculpting.
Does skin become saggy after cool sculpting?
No. Cool sculpting is a gradual process of fat removal. You will observe a reduction of fat up to 25% at the area of cool sculpting after 2 to 3 months of cool sculpting. The dead fat cells are gradually removed over months.
As a result of which it does not affect the skin and its elasticity. You get saggy skin if a lot of fat is removed at once, like in liposuction. But, as cool sculpting is a gradual process, it reduces the possibility of saggy skin.
Cool sculpting can be safely performed on areas of the body like belly, inner and outer thighs, upper neck, flanks, buttocks and under the buttocks. It does not harm the skin at any of these parts.
Cool sculpting has a lot of advantages but also a few drawbacks.
In some cases, the fat that is frozen during cool sculpting instead of reducing expands and hardens into an irregular lump. It is known as Paradoxical Adipose Hyperplasia (PAH). In such cases, liposuction needs to be done to remove that fatty lump.
People with loose skin, cryoglobulinemia (where proteins increase under cold conditions), paroxysmal cold hemoglobinuria (where red blood cells die under cold conditions) and other skin related or cold-related problems are advised to avoid cool sculpting.
Should you undergo cool sculpting?
Cool sculpting is recently introduced and does not have enough independent research done around it. Existing research shows that cool sculpting is a method of fat reduction with low risk. It does not substitute diet and exercise.
If you are interested in cool sculpting, consult your doctor. Your doctor can help you decide if it is the best way of fat reduction for you.