CoolSculpting vs. Kybella: How to Choose the Best Fat Reduction Solution

These days, the options to get rid of stubborn fat pockets may seem endless. From injectables to lasers and even surgery, there’s more than one way to eliminate fat from under the chin where fat often seems like it won’t budge despite your best efforts. Rather than resorting to high turtlenecks and scarves to cover up the area, a noninvasive solution can shrink unwanted fat under the chin for less bulk and a more defined chin, neck, and jawline. If you’re debating whether CoolSculpting vs. Kybella is best for you, here’s everything you need to know about the two treatments.

CoolSculpting vs. Kybella: Comparing the Two Treatments

CoolSculpting and Kybella are two of the more popular treatments for eliminating chin fat, which causes the dreaded turkey neck look, but they couldn’t be more different from one another.

  • Kybella is a unique injectable treatment that utilizes deoxycholic acid, a naturally occurring substance within the body, to reduce fat under the chin. The FDA-approved treatment permanently eliminates fat by breaking down the fat cells. Since tiny needles are used (sometimes, one large grid injecting tool is used to treat the entire area at once), the treatment is tolerable, but numbing cream can be applied beforehand if you need it. Then, the body ushers the fat cells out of the body. With fewer fat cells in the area under the chin, a slimming and more sculpted appearance begins to appear with each treatment session. 
  • CoolSculpting is a nonsurgical fat reduction treatment that relies on cryolipolysis (a.k.a. a fat-freezing technology) to literally suction up the skin and then freeze fat under the chin. The freezing cold temperatures kill the fat cells in the area, which the body then naturally eliminates over the next few weeks. The treatment can reduce about 20% of fat in the area, but it’s not exactly a pain-free experience. Most patients describe the treatment as feeling like intense blasts of cold on the skin along with a pulling, tugging, and pinching feeling. Common side effects include lingering numbness, aching, cramping, stinging, swelling, bruising, and skin blanching. In rarer cases, there’s the potential for the fat to harden or become lodged and morph into the applicator’s shape, known as paradoxical adipose hyperplasia, which can only be corrected with surgery.

The Differences Between CoolSculpting and Kybella

The main difference between CoolSculpting vs. Kybella is the technology used. Whereas CoolSculpting freezes fat via an applicator adhered to the area, Kybella is injected directly into the area to break down fat cells on contact. A session of CoolSculpting also takes longer than Kybella—45 minutes compared to 20 minutes.

The side effects between the treatments are also noticeably different. With Kybella, minor swelling and a bullfrog neck result after treatment, which you can easily hide under scarves and turtlenecks. But with CoolSculpting, long-lasting swelling, numbness, and residual pain are common, which is why more patients seek Kybella.

The Similarities

Both CoolSculpting and Kybella are permanent options, and both treatments take a few months to see the full results. You will need more than one session with both treatments to see the best results. While some patients may be able to get away with just one session (if they have minuscule amounts of excess fat), most need about two or three with CoolSculpting and anywhere from four to six with Kybella.

How to Choose the Right Treatment for You

At Charette Cosmetics, we treat patients who wish to eliminate unwanted fat under their chin with Kybella rather than CoolSculpting. Kybella is an excellent option if you have a busy schedule and can’t commit to longer treatment sessions and recovery periods, which CoolSculpting requires. Also, complications from CoolSculpting have more patients interested in Kybella because it’s an easy treatment that’s far more tolerable.

Unlike CoolSculpting, which requires using an applicator to treat the area under the chin, Kybella is administered via a series of injections allowing for it to be customized. This lets us treat the areas where you need it most for better results and a more defined jawline and chin area.

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