Profhilo and dermal fillers both contain hyaluronic acid, but they do completely different things. Choosing between them — or combining them — is one of the most common questions we field at consultation. The short version: dermal fillers add structure and volume to specific places, while Profhilo improves the overall hydration, elasticity, and quality of the skin itself.
This guide explains how each treatment works, where each one wins, and which to choose based on what you’re actually trying to fix.
The core difference in one paragraph
A dermal filler is a thicker, cross-linked hyaluronic acid gel. When injected, it stays where you put it — that’s the whole point. It physically lifts and contours, replacing volume in the cheeks, jawline, lips, tear trough, or chin. Profhilo is a different animal: it’s a high-concentration, low-cross-linked hyaluronic acid that spreads after injection. It doesn’t lift or contour. Instead, it stimulates collagen and elastin production across a broad area, improving skin firmness, hydration, and “glow” without changing facial shape.
If your face has lost structural volume — flattened cheekbones, hollow temples, a heavier-looking jawline — you need filler. If your face still has good structure but the skin itself looks dull, crepey, or dehydrated, you need Profhilo. Plenty of patients in their late 30s and 40s need both.
How Profhilo works
Profhilo contains 64mg of hyaluronic acid in a 2ml syringe — one of the highest concentrations of any HA injectable on the UK market. Crucially, it uses a thermal manufacturing process to create hybrid cooperative complexes of high and low molecular weight hyaluronic acid, without chemical cross-linking agents. This matters because traditional cross-linked fillers stay localised; Profhilo’s structure means it actively diffuses across the tissue plane after injection.
Once distributed, Profhilo stimulates four different types of collagen and elastin production over the following weeks. The clinical effects — tighter, more hydrated, more luminous skin — build gradually over 4 to 8 weeks. There’s no immediate “before and after” the way there is with filler; Profhilo is a slow burn.
The standard protocol is two treatments four weeks apart, with results visible from around week 4 of the second treatment and lasting roughly 6 months before a maintenance session.
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How dermal fillers work
Dermal fillers are cross-linked hyaluronic acid gels designed to hold their shape and stay in the anatomical layer where they’re placed. When injected deep on bone (cheekbones, chin, jawline), they restore structural support that has been lost to bone resorption and fat-pad migration. When injected more superficially (lips, tear trough, fine lines), they smooth and refine specific features.
The result is immediate. You see the change as soon as you sit up. Hyaluronic acid is hygroscopic, so the filler continues to attract water over the following 2 weeks, with the settled final result visible at around 2 to 4 weeks post-treatment.
Different filler products have different viscosities and lift capacities — the dense, structural products designed for deep cheek placement are entirely different from the soft, flowing products designed for lips. We choose product based on anatomical site, not patient request.
RELATED: Dermal Fillers FAQs
Where each treatment goes
Profhilo treatment areas:
- Face — full lower-face skin quality treatment using 5 standard injection points per side (Bio Aesthetic Points)
- Neck — increasingly popular as a standalone treatment for crepey neck skin
- Hands — for crepey, thin hand skin showing tendons and veins
- Décolletage — for the chest area
Dermal filler treatment areas:
- Cheeks — to restore mid-face volume
- Jawline and chin — for definition and contour
- Lips — volume, shape, and hydration
- Tear trough — under-eye hollows
- Nasolabial folds and marionette lines — directly filling deeper static lines
- Nose — non-surgical rhinoplasty for bumps, asymmetry, and tip refinement
The overlap is small. Profhilo doesn’t go in lips, tear troughs, or nose reshaping. Dermal fillers don’t go into broad sheets of skin for hydration.
Treatment experience and downtime
Profhilo uses 10 standardised injection points across the lower face — 5 per side at anatomical landmarks chosen to maximise spread without compromising safety. The procedure takes around 15 minutes. There’s no lidocaine in Profhilo, so we apply topical anaesthetic cream first. You will see small raised bumps at each injection site immediately after treatment; these disappear within 24 to 48 hours as the product diffuses. No bruising in most cases, and you can return to work the same day.
Dermal fillers involve more variable technique — typically a combination of needles and cannulas, with multiple injection points depending on the area. Most filler products contain lidocaine, which numbs as it goes in. The procedure takes 20 to 45 minutes depending on the number of areas treated. Some bruising and swelling is normal, particularly with lip filler, where swelling can last 3 to 7 days. Most patients are socially presentable the next day; significant events should be at least 2 weeks out.
How long do the results last?
Profhilo results last roughly 6 months from the second treatment. Maintenance is usually 1 to 2 sessions per year depending on individual skin response and lifestyle factors (sun exposure, smoking, and dehydration all shorten longevity).
Dermal fillers last anywhere from 6 to 24 months depending on product and placement. Lip fillers metabolise fastest (6 to 9 months); deep structural cheek and jawline filler lasts longest (18 to 24 months). Tear trough sits in the middle (9 to 12 months).
In direct cost terms, dermal fillers are usually a longer-lasting investment per session. In terms of treatment intent, they’re not really competing — they solve different problems.
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Cost comparison
At Centre for Surgery, Profhilo starts from £400 per session, with the full course of two sessions costing £750. Dermal fillers start from £400 for a 1ml lip treatment and scale with the volume of product used — full cheek treatment is typically £900–£1,400 depending on volume; jawline contouring £1,200–£2,400; tear trough £450–£700.
Cost should not be the primary driver of which treatment you choose. The right question is what your face actually needs — and that’s a consultation conversation, not a price comparison.
Who is each treatment best for?
Profhilo is the right answer when:
- Skin looks dull, dehydrated, or has fine crepiness
- You’re in your late 20s to 40s and want preventative skin quality work
- The neck or décolletage is starting to look thinner and more lined
- You don’t want any visible volume change — just better-looking skin
- You’ve already had filler and want to improve skin quality on top
Dermal fillers are the right answer when:
- You have visible volume loss in cheeks, temples, or jawline
- You want to enhance lip shape or volume
- Under-eye hollowing or tear trough deformity is your main concern
- You want to address a specific feature (chin projection, nose bump, smile lines)
- You want immediate, visible change rather than a gradual skin-quality shift
Both at once when: you have both structural volume loss and skin quality concerns — which is most patients over 40. We typically do Profhilo first, then layer in dermal fillers 2 to 4 weeks later, so we can assess each treatment’s effect independently.
What we don’t recommend
Profhilo is not a substitute for filler. If you have hollow cheeks or under-eye troughs, Profhilo will not fix them. Patients sometimes ask for Profhilo because it’s been marketed as “natural” or “non-invasive” — both treatments are equally non-invasive injectables, and both are made of hyaluronic acid. The question is whether you need volume or skin quality.
Equally, dermal filler is not a substitute for Profhilo. Stuffing more filler into a face that needs skin quality improvement makes the skin look worse, not better. We see patients regularly who have been chasing the wrong outcome with the wrong treatment for years.
We do not offer polynucleotide skin boosters at all skin types or as a routine substitute for Profhilo — we do offer polynucleotide treatment as a more intensive regenerative option, particularly under the eyes, but it’s a separate decision and not directly comparable.
Other skin booster options
Profhilo isn’t the only skin booster, though it’s the most clinically established. Other hyaluronic acid skin boosters use lower concentrations and different cross-linking strategies; results tend to be subtler and more localised. We don’t use Teosyal Redensity 1 for routine skin booster work — its formulation and protocol are different from Profhilo, and we focus on the products with the strongest evidence base for the outcomes our patients are looking for.
For the tear trough specifically, we use Teosyal Redensity 2, which is the only filler in our range specifically formulated for that anatomy. That’s a dermal filler, not a skin booster, and is a separate conversation from the Profhilo/filler decision.
Why choose Centre for Surgery?
We are a CQC-regulated clinic on Baker Street performing both Profhilo and dermal filler treatments daily. All injectables are administered by GMC-registered doctors. We carry hyalase on-site for filler complications and adverse events. Consultation is structured, written, and includes a 2-week cooling-off period before any procedure.
Our consultation approach for Profhilo vs filler is to start with the question you actually want answered — what bothers you when you look in the mirror? — and work backwards to the treatment that addresses it. We won’t sell you Profhilo if what you need is filler, and we won’t sell you filler if what you need is Profhilo.
To book a consultation, call 0207 993 4849, email contact@centreforsurgery.com, or complete the contact form below.
Centre for Surgery
95-97 Baker Street, London W1U 6RN
📞 0207 993 4849
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