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=What about frostbite?=
A common concern is frostbite, or other damage to the skin. This is not a problem, as you need far colder temperatures to cause that type of damage. CoolSculpting uses temperatures that do not immediately kill off the fat cells, but rather trigger the natural process of cell death([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apoptosis apoptosis]). That's why CoolSculpting takes weeks or months for the full effect to be seen.
=CoolScuplting CoolSculpting compared with Cryosurgery=CoolScuplting CoolSculpting is quite different to Cryosurgery, which uses cold to kill off tissue, such as tumors. Typically cryosurgery uses far lower temperatures (-20c/-4f to -40c/-40f) and immediately kills off the living cells ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necrosis necrosis]) <ref name="CryosurgeryTemp"/>. Cell damage is caused by temperatures below -10c/14f and CoolSculpting only drops the temperature to around -1c/31f.
=Side effects of CoolSculpting=
There have been no serious side effects reported so far<ref name="ClNelson"/>. The skin being treated goes red, with some bruising and numbness. I suspect that the bruising may be because the CoolSculpting device sucks<ref name="CsSuction"/><ref name="CryroNerves"/> the fat against the cooling device. These problems normally resolve within a week. Studies have shown no changes in blood lipid levels or liver function<ref name="CyroMeta"/>. The numbness is not associated with nerve damage<ref name="CryroNerves"/>.