Call today! 813.949.3300
Call today! 813.949.3300
Controlled cooling freezes the fat cells in the pocket beneath your jaw, and your body clears them over the weeks that follow. That is the whole mechanism, and it is why this treatment rewards patience rather than speed. It is performed at Nu Image Medspa by our certified team under on-site medical supervision, at 3939 Cheval Blvd, off N Dale Mabry Hwy near Cheval, Steinbrenner High and Gaither High. The applicator built for this area is the CoolMini™, shaped to fit the small pocket beneath the jaw.
Plan on 1–2 treatment cycles per visit and often two visits spaced about eight weeks apart, at roughly $700–$1,500 per session. Nothing about it requires time off — you sit through it for about 35 minutes and drive yourself home. The catch is patience: The fat clears gradually, so the result appears over 8–12 weeks and keeps improving to around sixteen. It only works on fat you can pinch. Serving Lutz, Cheval, Carrollwood, Northdale, Odessa and Land O’ Lakes. Open Mon 9–5, Tue–Fri 9–7 and Sat 9–3. Call 813.949.3300.
“Double chin” describes an appearance, not a diagnosis, and at least three unrelated things produce it. Which one you have decides whether any of this is worth your money.
The most common version. A pad of subcutaneous fat sits in the submental area, between the chin and the neck, and it is stubbornly independent of body weight — plenty of lean people have one, usually because they inherited it. This is the only version CoolSculpting® treats. The test is simple: If you can pinch it between your fingers, it is fat.
Skin that has lost elasticity drapes rather than holds, and the result reads as fullness even when very little fat is present. Freezing fat that is not there accomplishes nothing, and removing what little there is can make loose skin look slacker. This version needs tightening, not reduction.
The one almost nobody expects. When the chin is set back, the distance from chin to neck is shortened, and an ordinary amount of fat has nowhere to sit but forward. The fat is not the problem — the frame around it is. Bringing the chin forward with chin filler lengthens the profile and the area beneath it looks tidier without a single fat cell going anywhere. A good number of people arrive convinced they need fat removed and leave having treated the chin instead.
Plenty of people have two of the three at once, which is why the assessment matters more than the device.
Chin lifts, tongue presses, the ones where you tilt your head back and pretend to chew — these are the most searched double chin solutions by a wide margin, and it is worth being straight about what they do.
They work the platysma, the broad sheet of muscle across the front of the neck, and they can genuinely improve its tone. What they cannot do is reduce a fat pad. Subcutaneous fat sits above the muscle, not inside it, and no amount of contracting the muscle underneath removes the layer on top. It is the same reason sit-ups do not flatten a stomach.
Weight loss is a different matter and does help some people, because submental fat responds to overall body composition to a degree. But it responds unevenly and often last, which is why people who lose a substantial amount of weight frequently still have one. That is precisely the group CoolSculpting® and Kybella® were designed for — a localised pocket that has not gone away with everything else.
Posture is worth a mention. Hours looking down at a phone shortens the front of the neck and makes the area look fuller than it is in a mirror. It will not create a double chin, but it can make an existing one look considerably worse in photographs.
Fat cells freeze at a higher temperature than skin, nerves and muscle. CoolSculpting® exploits that gap, cooling the treated pocket to a temperature that damages the fat cells while leaving everything around them intact. The damaged cells die, and your body clears them out through normal metabolic processes over the following weeks.
The chin has its own applicator. The CoolMini™ is smaller and differently shaped than the ones used on an abdomen or flank, because the submental pocket is small, curved and sits close to the jaw. Using a body applicator here does not work well, and the treatment plan is built around how much tissue the applicator can actually draw in.
The area is marked, the applicator is applied with suction, and you sit for about 35 minutes per cycle. The first few minutes feel intensely cold with some pulling, then the area goes numb and most people read or work through the rest. Afterwards the tissue is massaged for a couple of minutes, which is briefly uncomfortable and matters for the result. Numbness in the area for a week or two afterwards is normal.
Most people need 1–2 cycles per visit, and a second visit about eight weeks later is common rather than exceptional. Each treatment removes a portion of the fat cells in the treated area, not all of them, which is why the plan is usually staged. The cells that go do not come back — but the ones remaining can still enlarge if your weight increases substantially.
Both remove submental fat permanently, by completely different mechanisms. Neither is better — they suit different people, different volumes of fat and different tolerances for swelling. We offer both, which means we have nothing to gain by steering you toward either.
| CoolSculpting® | Kybella® | |
|---|---|---|
| Method | Controlled cooling | Injected deoxycholic acid |
| Needles | None | Yes, a grid of them |
| Per visit | ~35 min per cycle | ~20 min |
| Swelling | Minimal | Marked, 1–2 weeks |
| Visits | Usually 1–2 | Often 2–4 |
| Result by | 8–12 weeks | 6–12 weeks |
| Suits | A pinchable pocket | Smaller, precise areas |
| Fat cells | Permanently removed by both | |
This is the part of the consultation that decides everything, and the part most easily skipped by anyone paid per cycle.
Pinch the area. If very little comes away between your fingers and what you are seeing is a soft drape under the jaw, the issue is laxity. Freezing will not help, and reducing what little fat is supporting that skin can leave it looking slacker than before. Skin tightening or a surgical opinion is the honest route.
A recessed chin shortens the distance the profile has to travel and pushes ordinary fat forward into view. Treating the fat chases a symptom. Chin filler addresses the structure, and it frequently makes the submental area look better than fat reduction would have.
If you are in the middle of significant weight loss, this is worth postponing. The area often changes on its own, and treating a moving target wastes cycles. Come back when things have settled and we will see what is actually left.
Very occasionally, treated fat responds by enlarging rather than shrinking. It is called paradoxical adipose hyperplasia (PAH), it is uncommon, it is more often reported in men, and it does not resolve on its own — it needs surgical correction. Most pages about this treatment do not mention it. You should know it exists before consenting to any device, and we will talk it through at your consultation rather than leaving you to find it later.
This treatment cannot be rushed. The fat clears on your body’s schedule, not yours, and the visible result lands somewhere between eight and twelve weeks out — longer if a second visit is part of the plan. Which makes the timing a genuine planning question rather than a detail.
And the calendar here is not the one most advice is written for. In most of the country the social season is the summer, so the standard guidance is to treat in winter. Lutz runs the other way. The season here is November through April — the snowbirds are back, the holiday parties start, the galas at Cheval land in the cooler months, and weddings avoid a Florida August for obvious reasons.
The right time to treat is the dead middle of a Florida summer, when the calendar is empty, nobody is photographing you and there is nothing to be visibly recovering from. Starting in August puts your result in place for December. Starting in October, for a Christmas party, is cutting it fine — and if a second visit turns out to be worth doing, there is no room left for it.
The other quiet advantage of treating in summer here is that the numbness afterwards is genuinely unnoticeable under a collar you were not wearing anyway.
| Best for | A pinchable pocket of fat under the chin, in someone at a stable weight |
|---|---|
| How it’s done | Controlled cooling through the CoolMini™ applicator, shaped for the submental area |
| Session length | About 35 minutes per cycle |
| Typical plan | 1–2 cycles per visit · often two visits about 8 weeks apart |
| Typical cost (Lutz) | About $700–$1,500 per session · see monthly specials |
| Results appear | 8–12 weeks · continuing to about 16 weeks |
| Downtime | None · numbness in the area for 1–2 weeks is normal |
| Not the right treatment for | Loose skin, a recessed chin (see chin filler), or anyone mid-weight-loss |
| Performed by | Our certified CoolSculpting® team, under on-site medical supervision |
Pricing is approximate and confirmed at your complimentary consultation. Ask about current specials and flexible payment plans.
The submental area is treated by several different routes, and the right one depends on what is actually causing the fullness:
Controlled cooling through the applicator built for this area. No needles, no downtime, results over 8–12 weeks.
1–2 cycles per visit
Injected deoxycholic acid that dissolves the same fat by a different route. Better suited to smaller, more precisely defined pockets.
When a chin sitting back is what pushes the fat into view, adding projection lengthens the profile and the area beneath looks tidier.
A defined jaw edge separates face from neck. Sometimes the submental fullness is really an absent border rather than excess fat.
Where the lower face reads heavy because the masseter muscle is enlarged, slimming the muscle does what no fat treatment can.
Fat first, structure second is the usual order, since removing volume changes how much projection the profile still needs.
Sequenced over months
Not sure whether what you are seeing is fat, skin or a profile problem? A consultation sorts it in a few minutes, and tells you honestly if this is not your treatment.
This one is not about a pair of hands. A CoolSculpting® machine does the same thing wherever it is plugged in, which means the difference between practices is not technique. It is what happens before the applicator goes on, and who is in the building if something is not routine.
Ours is a certified CoolSculpting® practice, and every treatment runs under on-site medical supervision — a board-certified nurse practitioner in the building, not reachable by phone. Treatments are performed by trained, certified staff. That is worth asking about anywhere you are considering, because it is not the standard everywhere.
The rest of it is judgment before the fact: Reading whether the fullness is fat, skin or a profile problem, choosing the applicator and mapping placement so the result blends into the jaw instead of leaving a step, and being straight about the rare outcomes rather than hoping you never search for them. After twenty years in Lutz, most of our work arrives by referral. That only holds if people leave having been told the truth, including when the truth is that they should keep their money.
We establish whether it is fat, skin or profile, and say plainly if this is the wrong treatment for you.
The area is marked and the applicator positioned so the treated pocket blends into the jawline.
About 35 minutes. Intense cold for a few minutes, then numbness. Bring something to read.
Massage afterwards, then patience. Changes begin around week four and land at 8–12 weeks.
We’re centrally located on Cheval Blvd, an easy drive from across the area. Tap your neighborhood for directions and local details.
Cheval CoolSculpting® →
Northdale CoolSculpting® →
Odessa CoolSculpting® →
Carrollwood CoolSculpting® →
Land O’ Lakes CoolSculpting® →
Drive times are approximate — check live directions for your exact route. Free on-site parking at 3939 Cheval Blvd, Lutz, FL 33558.
Around $700–$1,500 per session at Nu Image Medspa, depending on how many cycles are used. Most people need 1–2 cycles per visit, and a second visit about eight weeks later is common, so it is worth asking for the full plan rather than a single-session price. Your exact figure is confirmed at your complimentary consultation, and we run new specials every month.
Usually one or two, spaced about eight weeks apart. Each treatment reduces a portion of the fat cells in the area rather than all of them, so a staged plan is normal. How many you need depends on how much fat is there to begin with and how your body responds to the first round, which is why the plan is reviewed at the eight-week mark rather than promised up front.
On the right double chin, yes. It works on subcutaneous fat — the pinchable kind — and the applicator designed for this area treats it effectively. It does nothing for a double chin caused by loose skin, and nothing for one caused by a chin that sits back and pushes ordinary fat into view. Which is why the assessment comes first: Pinch the area, and if very little comes away between your fingers, this is not your treatment.
Both permanently remove fat cells, by different mechanisms. CoolSculpting® uses cooling, involves no needles and causes little swelling, and typically takes one or two visits. Kybella® is injected, suits smaller and more precisely defined pockets, and produces marked swelling for a week or two with often three or four visits. Neither is superior. We offer both, so the recommendation is based on your anatomy and your tolerance for downtime rather than what we happen to have in the building.
Changes generally begin around four weeks, with the main result visible at 8–12 weeks and continuing to improve to about sixteen. The fat cells are cleared gradually by your body rather than removed on the day, which is why this treatment has to be planned backwards from any event you have in mind.
The treated fat cells are gone permanently — your body does not regenerate them. What can happen is that the fat cells remaining in the area enlarge if your weight increases significantly, which can make the area look fuller again. Stable weight keeps the result. This is also why treatment is best postponed if you are currently in the middle of losing a substantial amount.
The first five to ten minutes are intensely cold with a strong pulling sensation from the suction, then the area goes numb and most people read or work through the remainder. The massage immediately afterwards is briefly uncomfortable and it matters for the result, so it is not skipped. Numbness in the area for one to two weeks afterwards is normal and expected.
PAH is a rare outcome in which the treated fat enlarges instead of shrinking, usually appearing a few months after treatment. It is uncommon, it is reported more often in men, and it does not resolve on its own — correcting it requires surgery. It is a recognised risk of this technology and you should know it exists before consenting. We will discuss it at your consultation rather than leave you to discover it afterwards.
Anyone whose submental fullness is loose skin rather than fat, anyone whose chin position is the underlying cause, and anyone currently in the middle of significant weight loss. There are also medical exclusions, including cryoglobulinemia, cold agglutinin disease and paroxysmal cold hemoglobinuria, which are screened at consultation. If any of these apply, we will say so and point you at what would actually help.
We’re at 3939 Cheval Blvd, Lutz, FL 33558, just off N Dale Mabry Hwy near Cheval, Steinbrenner High School and Gaither High School — serving Lutz, Carrollwood, Northdale, Cheval, Odessa and Land O’ Lakes. Open Mon 9–5, Tue–Fri 9–7 and Sat 9–3, with free on-site parking. Call 813.949.3300 to book.