Coolsculpting With Ice Packs

CoolSculpting or Ice?

CoolSculpting delivers cold in a controlled way so that it does not damage the skin, veins, etc. If you put ice packs on your fat, you run the risk of frost bite. Plus you would find it very difficult to maintain an appropriate temperature for one hour. (Janet Turkle, MD, Indianapolis Plastic Surgeon)

Fallacy: Ice Packs to Kill Fat

It would certainly be nice to kill off fat using ice packs, but unfortunately, this won’t work for many reasons. Firstly, your body heats up the ice and therefore the temperature needed to reach lipolysis would not be reached.

More importantly, the ice placed directly on your body would damage your skin and not the underlying fat tissue. As such, the Coolsculpting procedure utilizes what is called a “Gel pad” to protect the surface of the skin, to bypass and thus only kill off the fat directly beneath the skin.

Ice Pack Coolsculpting

Interestingly enough, only fat is targeted, so muscles, organs or blood will not be negatively affected. This is why Coolsculpting is a safe alternative to liposuction. (Edward Stokes, MD, West Hollywood Physician)

Can Ice Packs achieve Coolsculpt results?

Coolsculpting is a highly tested and safe way to gradually cool lower the temperature and freeze subcutaneous fat while keeping the skin above freezing. There is a lot of safety built into the treatment device to make sure that only the fat freezes and that the overlying skin is not damaged.

Applying icepacks to your skin repeatedly can give your skin frostbite without actually affecting the underlying fat. Additionally, the treatments are designed to sculpt the bulges of the fat and in a controlled and pre-planned way that will achieve the best results.

Ice Packs For Thighs

I hope that you will choose to have a consultation with an expert in Coolsculpting to help you achieve your body shape goals. (Quenby Erickson, DO, FAAD, FACMS, Chicago Dermatologic Surgeon)

Icing Skin Is Not Equivalent to CoolSculpting

CoolSculpting is a precisely engineered device that is designed to freeze fat cells to the point of triggering cell death while not harming surrounding tissue or skin. This is possible because fat freezes at a higher temperature than water does.

When the CoolSculpting device is applied, the temperature is constantly regulated to ensure that only fat, and not water (which composes non-fat cells), will be affected. There is a protective gel pad, which is applied to the skin that prevents the skin from freezing too.

The lowered temperature causes the fat cells to die and, over the next 2 weeks, to be eliminated from the body. If you tried to kill fat cells by applying ice packs or another freezing device to the skin, the temperature would not be monitored and you would end up damaging the skin, and likely cause frostbite.
Cosmetic surgery is not something you should try on your own. The consequences could be dire. Please schedule a free consultation with a board-certified dermatologist to find out how CoolSculpting can help you obtain the healthy, youthful shape you desire. (Kimberly Butterwick, MD, San Diego Dermatologic Surgeon)

Coolsculpting is a controlled cooling with a feedback mechanism that does not allow temperature extremes that would result in skin injury from excessive cold as would occur with just using ice packs. The original idea may have come from popsicles, but this is a much more sophisticated approach to fat removal. (Michelle Ellern, DO, Livingston Physician)

Coolsculpting Targets Specific Cells, Ice Bags Simply Can’t

In theory, it make sense that merely applying cold ice to the skin directly could melt fat bulges, but this technique unfortunately cannot target specific areas and destroy fat cells. The CoolSculpting laser doesn’t exactly kill cells by freezing them, however.
Rather, the CoolSculpting laser delivers concentrated energy to draw away heat from the targeted area, which in turn causes the targeted fat cells to be cooled drastically and eventually breakdown. So in short, the freezing of the fat cells is merely an indirect effect of energy that is concentrated on the targeted fat cells.

Using icepacks of a pack of ice cubes would not be able to deliver the necessary energy to the targeted area in order to kill the cells. Additionally, applying ice cubes/icepacks to the skin may lead to frostbite, skin drying, inflammation, and a slew of other unpleasant side effects. (Brian Vassar Heil, MD, Pittsburgh Plastic Surgeon)

Coolsculpting- How It Works

Coolsculpting is an FDA-cleared procedure for fat reduction. There have been many studies and tests done to verify the effectiveness and safety of the procedure. Moreover, there are specific steps in the procedure that are in place to protect the skin in the treatment area.

Cool Sculpting Reduces The Thickness Of Fat In The Area Treated

If you repeatedly apply ice to your skin, you risk causing frost bite. Coolsculpting is a very controlled cooling process that allows us to safely and effectively kill fat cells while not damaging the surrounding tissue. (Stanley Kovak, MD, Oak Brook Physician)

Placing ice packs on an area to lose fat would be unsafe.

Placing ice packs on an area to lose fat would be unsafe. You would risk damaging your skin and developing scarring. Popsicle panniculitis happened when the ice was placed against the inside of the mouth, against the creek.

This mucosa is much thinner that the skin and would transmit the cold more easily to the cheek fat pads. Plus this is an undesirable medical condition. Coolsculpting is a safe and tested treatment that is more than just freezing the fat.
It does it in a very controlled manner, has safety features and also has a gradually suction and massage. (William Kwan, MD, FAAD, San Francisco Dermatologist)

CoolSculpting vs Ice application

The CoolSculpting apparatus has several protective agents to keep the skin from freezing, which would kill the skin. It is computer monitered to prevent this. There are also physical barriers for skin protection. Direct ice application would have none of these and would result in skin death. (Maurice M. Vick, Jr., MD, Baton Rouge Urologist)

Since CooSculpting Freezes Fat to KillIt, Why Not Just Repeatedly Apply Ice Bags?

CoolSculpting is an advanced patented technology that uses controlled cooling to target and kill only the fat cells without effecting or harming the skin. Placing ice directly on the skin would damage the skin and cause frostbite. (Daniel Taheri, MD, Los Angeles Dermatologic Surgeon)

The CoolSculpting machine is specifically designed to target and freeze fat

The CoolSculpting machine is specifically designed to target and freeze fat only and not the surrounding organs, skin, nerves, etc. It would be impossible to safely do that with an ice pack as you could potentially cause frostbite as well as an unsightly and permanent scar. (Lenore Sikorski, MD, Orange County Dermatologist)

Coolsculpting delivers precise cooling as to not damage tissues

I would not recommend applying ice packs to your fat bulges. The Coolsculpting technique delivers precise cooling to maintain the perfect temperature at which fat cells die and all other cells are unharmed. By applying ice packs, you could indeed cause damage to your skin and nerves. (David P. Rapaport, MD, FACS, Manhattan Plastic Surgeon)