You’ve seen them around — beauty salons promising a quick fix for getting rid of fats; or even aesthetics clinics lauding cheaper, faster and more effective fat freezing alternatives to CoolSculpting.
It’s in our nature to zone in on the best deal. Even the ladies who lunch or hedge fund honchos also tend to be time-strapped, savvy consumers.
You might also wonder, what’s the worst that could happen with wonky fat freezing technology. Perhaps the results just won’t be as dramatic as that of the real deal?
Not seeing results with your slimming treatment? This one is so powerful it’s dangerous in the wrong hands.
Recently, news broke about a cheap liposuction procedure done in Kuala Lumpur by a beautician that resulted in the death of a young lady. While fat freezing is safer, it is not a risk free procedure! When it comes to certain unproven fat freezing techniques, the downside can be downright chilling.
Reality check: Fat freezing is so powerful, it could cause some serious, irreversible damage.
Cold, Hard facts
Fat freezing, technically known as cryolipolysis, is a non-invasive method of freezing fat cells to get rid of unwanted areas of fats. Fat freezing works using paddles that suction your skin into a cup in order to crystallise underlying fat cells. It’s a term that applies to a wide range of treatments that utilise this basic principle to remove fat cells.
Meanwhile, CoolSculpting is the only FDA-cleared, non-invasive fat freezing body contouring procedure and is performed in a medical aesthetic clinic. Coolsculpting is a device is used to freeze fat cells under the skin. Once the fat cells have been destroyed, they are gradually broken down and removed from the body by the liver.
When it comes to natural weight loss, there is seldom control over specific areas you want to lose unwanted fat. While natural weight loss makes fat cells smaller, it doesn’t get rid of them. This makes people turn to aesthetic weight loss procedures.
The theory behind CoolSculpting fat freezing is that fat cells are more sensitive to cold temperatures than other types of surrounding body cells. The procedure therefore entails putting a vacuum device on fat bulges and exposing the fat cells to the cold (above freezing but lower than body temperature) for up to an hour.
The cold is supposed to selectively destroy fat cells. Cold temperatures can cause blood vessels to constrict and reduce blood flow. A vacuum is then used to pull blood flow. Thereafter, accompanying inflammatory cells to the fat layers help with the destruction of the fat.
Fat freezing remains the most effective non-invasive method of removing fat, as compared to other techniques such as RF, warm-sculpting, HIFU, or even laser lipolysis. This is because cooling is not selective of skin type, and also more easily tolerated than extreme heat.
Coolsculpting is more effective than any other fat freeze
The stats don’t lie: results from CoolSculpting average at around 25% fat removal in a session and this could mean 100% of fat in a given area pinched with a skinfold calliper.
I’ve explored many fat freezing alternatives from Korea and even Europe (I’m a big fan of Europeans’, especially Germans’ BTW), after all, they were much cheaper alternatives.
I found CoolSculpting to be the only fat freeze technology that was solidly based on precise science, backed with multiple peer reviewed studies, and also the only institute that had proper and precise protocols for every single body part.
This was the precision that matched my clinical standards, that I felt my patients deserved. I’ve never looked back since, because nobody else has been able to match this standard.
The right treatment and the right hands
That all sounds great! But because the technology is so powerful, the treatment isn’t just about placing an applicator on an area and switching on a machine for an hourglass figure. That’s the other more impressive part of CoolSculpting.
Besides being the only precisely researched fat freezing technology, it is also the only brand to have an institute that teaches how to properly place freezing applicators to sculpt the body.
Has your beautician ever told you that your body sculpting treatment needs to be carried out with a proper aesthetic approach, and that male and female body differences are extremely important? I like to think that very few women would like to walk around with a V-shape physique, and men would want to avoid an hourglass shape!
Imagine going to an untrained fat freezing practitioner who simply clamps down on any fatty bulge and lets the machine work its magic? Because fat freezing is so effective, it could cause an unwanted, permanent dent in the treated area if not administered correctly.
Some negative results may include unsightly indentations in your love handles, surrounded by and accentuating oddly shaped fatty lumps, or even unproportionate body silhouettes — in other words, one might look even worse than before undergoing the treatment.
Safety above everything else
Indeed, CoolSculpting is unparalleled in its efficacy and the training it offers. It even boasts its own CoolSculpting University, a testament to the company’s commitment to safety and efficacy — where my therapists and I received the highest level of training. As CSU “grads”, we have fine-tuned our body contouring skills into an art.
Having undergone intensive training, and after years of experience, I realised how it’s important to pick the right clinic and aesthetic doctor to perform body sculpting procedures.
More importantly, the CoolSculpting devices are the only controlled cooling devices with built-in safety measures. These are patented and so unavailable in all other brands, and the technology terminates treatment when it detects any safety breach or abnormal skin conditions. These prevent terrible side effects such as this case from happening and are extremely important.
As it takes time for the body to break down and naturally get rid of the frozen fats, the results from CoolSculpting do not appear immediately after a treatment. As such, body deformities due to treatments by untrained personnel might not be spotted right away.
The biggest danger is that the damage from these cases can be irreversible, possibly ruining one’s appearance permanently. So while CoolSculpting doesn’t have the risk of death as in liposuction, seductively cheap and unprofessional treatments can still cause a lifetime of regret!
Where to go to for CoolSculpting?
One tell-tale sign to look out for when picking the right clinic is whether the practice provides standard photography follow-up. CoolSculpting is completely non-invasive and it usually takes up to three months for the best results to show.
Professional clinics specialising in CoolSculpting will have a standard photography lighting, positioning and techniques set up for accurate post-treatment photos. Non-standard angles and lighting can exaggerate results, which explains why some clinics seem to give amazing results that you might not see in your own mirror.
Be sure to ask about the follow-up protocol at the clinic you visit. The CoolSculpting results will be gradually visible over time as your body naturally eliminates the dead fat cells.
As such, a responsible CoolSculpting practitioner will offer a post-treatment review or even waive the consultation fee, to ensure that results have been achieved with before-and-after photography.
CoolSculpting, when done right by qualified and trained aesthetic clinics and doctors, is one of the best ways to target fat loss. Unlike some other competitors, which require multiple sessions, you’d usually need one CoolSculpting session to achieve 25% fat loss on a targeted area.
Also read: A Doctor’s Guide To Fat Freeze CoolSculpting In Singapore
Hence, it is a time and cost-effective treatment that helps you finally get rid of unwanted fat in areas that are hard to target with natural weight loss.
Moreover, it can easily be done regardless of an individual’s tolerance to pain, unlike HIFU or RF treatments. FINALLY, fat loss and a svelte silhouette can be a reality, thanks to fat freezing — but only when this amazing technology is in the right hands!
