Is Cool Sculpting Appropriate for Teens (As Young As 13)?

Dear Marietta,

 

Before reaching adulthood, your fat cells will continue to undergo the appropriate changes that will fit your body and its needs.

As a maturing teen, you need to let nature take its course according to its laws and regulation within a healthy margin.

If you were to remove the undesired fat cells at the age of 13, in best case scenario more will grow and will tend to replace the ones you have lost; it is possible that some fat cells would grow replacing the removed ones asymmetrically.

That said, I recommend that you exercise and diet in a healthy manner to achieve your desired goal reasonably.

Thank you for your inquiry.

Best of luck to you.

Dr. Sajjadian

Adolescents should mature physically prior to having body contouring treatments.  There can be exercise and dietary influences that will help reduce fat bulges before CoolSculpting would be entertained.  The adolescent's perception of their body image is important to understand prior to peforming such a treatment.

Thank you for your question. CoolSculpting has been tested for adults only and therefore, I do not recommend using this procedure on anyone under the age of 18. You need to allow the body to completely grow and mature before having CoolSculpting. Best of Luck!

Thank you for your question. CoolSculpting has been tested for adults only and therefore, I do not recommend using this procedure on anyone under the age of 18. You need to allow the body to completely grow and mature before having CoolSculpting. Best of Luck!

Any procedure requires informed consent. A patient needs to have sufficient understanding to give consent, or have parental consent. Moreover, the procedure must be a candidate for the procedure. Most bodies of teens are still maturing, and this maturing process should generally not be interfered with.  It would require an unusual situation that a teen would be both a candidate and proper consent is given to proceed with coolsculpting.

Thank you for your question.

This procedure has been tested for adults and therefore, I would not recommend using it on anyone under 18 years old.  We need to allow for complete growth and maturation before deciding if this procedure would be appropriate for a patient.

Best Wishes!

Hi,

I think Dr. Stevens answered the physiology of adolescent fat perfectly.  To add another point to this question is that I think that adolescents many times have body images problems and a lot of social pressures to be thin.  I think that to perform Coolsculpting on them may not only work but also feeds the self esteem issues with teens.

Best,

Dr. Liu

CoolSculpting works by killing fat cells in grown adults. Once these fat cells are killed off - they are gone permanently in adults because after puberty, we are unable to produce additional fat cells.  The fat cells that adults have expand and contract depending on caloric intake and expenditure. 

 

In developing children/young teens, the results would not be permanent - they would be able to produce new fat cells because their body is still able to make fat cells. 

CoolSculpting has not been tested on children/teens for this reason.  I would suggest waiting for puberty to end and a safe number would be after the age of 18.

 

 

I would not recommend Coolsculpting procedures for any patient less than eighteen years of age. It has not been tested on these patients.