** UPDATE ** I had a face & neck lift almost 3 years after this treatment because the skin under my chin was really sagging. I journaled my entire FIRST YEAR of recovery from my facelift surgery if you'd like to read!
Beginning in 2017, I made a decision that I was going to be "fit and fab by 50!" I now have just over 11 months to get there. Now, I know we are supposed to just accept our imperfections, but I have always hated my double chin. It makes no difference how thin I am. I have a double chin in my wedding pictures and I was 118 lbs! Now, 30 lbs. later and happy with my weight for the most part, I still had more chin than I wanted. My husband encouraged me to seek out some help for this and I ended up at a local plastic surgeon's office, Dr. David Reath in Knoxville, Tennessee. His tech, Natasha, evaluated my chin and said I was a perfect candidate for the mini-CoolSculpting procedure which is, according to their website, "... a noninvasive method for addressing troublesome fat cells by chilling them until they crystalize."
We had saved up money for a kitchen update, but my husband knew that getting my chin done was going to make me happy. His motto is "Happy wife, happy life" so he wasted no time in telling me to go for it! I booked my appointment about a week after my consult and it was the longest week ever! I couldn't wait to have it done. I thought I knew what to expect from all that I had read, but I soon learned that Natasha knew her stuff and how to adapt the procedure to each patient to get the best results. She performed both sessions the same day and positioned the applicator on both sides of my chin, overlapping in the middle as shown in the pictures below. The last picture is the "stick of butter" that the technician wants to see when she removes the applicator. The harder the lump, the better the result because it means the machine sucked in a huge fat pocket to freeze off! Natasha massaged that lump down in just a matter of minutes. I had absolutely NO pain during the procedure, but a little sensitivity massaging the lump.
It takes 3-4 weeks before the fat cells start to die off, so results are not immediate. For those few weeks, my chin was numb and a bit sensitive in the area where she overlapped the machine. Other than that, things were normal. My follow up appointment was in two months, but I took these photos one month post-procedure.


To say I was excited is an understatement! I emailed the photos to Natasha and she was so excited to see the change so quickly. I had another month before my "after" pictures were to be taken in the office. By this time, the numbness and sensitivity in my chin was gone. Here are the pictures taken by Natasha.
So, there you have it! My experience with mini-CoolSculpting. I still have some loose skin in that area and Dr. Reath says that I would have to have a neck lift to get rid of it totally, so I have actually scheduled an appointment with a facial plastic surgeon in March to see if he can give me the final result that I am looking for. If you have any questions, just leave a comment and I will answer them!