Profhilo is an injectable hyaluronic acid treatment for skin quality, not a filler: each syringe holds 64 mg of thermally bonded high- and low-molecular-weight hyaluronic acid, placed at five Bio Aesthetic Points on each side of the face and left to spread. It is directed at the hydration and laxity of the skin rather than at facial shape.
- Profhilo is an injectable hyaluronic acid treatment for skin quality, not a filler, registered as a medical device with Singapore's HSA.
- It is directed at hydration, elasticity and laxity of the skin, placed at five Bio Aesthetic Points on each side.
- Suitability depends on whether the concern is skin quality, skin envelope laxity, deeper descent or fat compartment volume loss.
- It adds no volume, does not lift the SMAS and does not treat pigment or change pore size.
- Dr Sin Yong, an aesthetic physician, assesses and performs the injections personally.
- What Profhilo Actually Is
- Key Facts
- The BAP Technique — Points Chosen for Anatomy
- Profhilo Structura
- What It Is Directed At — and What It Is Not
- Who It Suits, and What Assessment Involves
- The Visit, and Recovery
- Risks, Stated Plainly
- How It Differs from the Adjacent Options
- What Determines the Cost
- Who it suits, who should wait, who is referred on
- What happens, step by step
- Before you book
- What determines the fee
- Myths we hear in clinic
- Frequently Asked Questions
What Profhilo Actually Is
People arrive having read three descriptions of one product — a skin booster, a filler, a “liquid facelift”. Those cannot all be true, and which one is decides what the treatment can do.
Profhilo is made by IBSA Farmaceutici Italia and is registered with Singapore’s Health Sciences Authority as an injectable medical device. Each 2 mL syringe holds 64 mg of bacterially bio-fermented hyaluronic acid: 32 mg of a high molecular weight fraction around 1,100–1,400 kDa and 32 mg of a low molecular weight fraction around 80–100 kDa, bound into stabilised hybrid cooperative complexes thermally by NAHYCO® technology rather than by BDDE, the chemical cross-linker used to build a conventional gel.
That is not a marketing distinction. A cross-linked gel is engineered to resist spreading, because resisting spread is what lets a filler hold a shape. Profhilo’s complexes do the opposite: they disperse through the plane they are placed in. The material cannot be sculpted, and everything else follows from that.
Key Facts
- Product
- Profhilo®, IBSA Farmaceutici Italia — one class of injectable skin booster
- Classification
- HSA-registered injectable medical device, administered by a doctor
- Composition
- 64 mg hyaluronic acid per 2 mL syringe; bacterial bio-fermentation, no animal-derived material
- Molecular weight
- 32 mg high molecular weight (~1,100–1,400 kDa) and 32 mg low molecular weight (~80–100 kDa)
- Bonding
- NAHYCO® stabilised hybrid cooperative complexes, thermally bonded — no BDDE cross-linker
- Injection plane
- Intradermal to subcutaneous, by product in the range
- Technique
- BAP — five Bio Aesthetic Points per side, at anatomically low-risk sites
- Not directed at
- Volume, facial shape, the SMAS layer, or pigment
The BAP Technique — Points Chosen for Anatomy
BAP means Bio Aesthetic Points: five per side — the zygomatic protrusion, the nasal base, the tragus, the chin and the mandibular angle. Not where a face looks tired, but where a deposit can be made with comparatively little risk of meeting a significant vessel or nerve, and from which material reaches a wide area as it disperses. Whether all ten are used is decided at examination; the neck, décolletage and hands carry their own maps, covered under neck and hand revitalisation.
“Profhilo spreads. A filler stays where it is put. That is the whole difference, and it is why one cannot do the other’s job.”
Dr Sin YongOn bio-remodelling and filling
Profhilo Structura
IBSA also makes Profhilo Structura: the same thermal bonding approach, formulated for the subcutaneous fat compartments rather than the dermis, supplied separately and injected at a different depth through its own point map — the longer account is in the Profhilo Structura guide. Fat compartment change and skin envelope change are different findings, assessed separately.
What It Is Directed At — and What It Is Not
Profhilo is directed at the skin envelope: hydration of the dermis, elasticity, and laxity of the skin itself — crepiness, slow recoil on pinching, the thinned quality that follows age and sun exposure.
It adds no volume. A hollow temple or a deficient chin is a deficit of structure, and correcting one needs material that stays put — filler territory, set out in the dermal fillers guide.
It does not lift the SMAS. Descent of the deeper structural layer is addressed by delivering energy to that depth, the territory of focused ultrasound. A treatment placed in the dermis cannot reach a plane it was never placed in.
It does not treat pigment. Melasma and sun-induced marks are chromophore problems. Nor does it change pore diameter — nothing shrinks a pore. What changes is how far a pore contrasts with the skin around it, a question of skin texture.
Who It Suits, and What Assessment Involves
This suits someone whose complaint is the quality of the skin rather than the shape of the face. It is not offered in pregnancy or while breastfeeding, not injected through active infection or inflamed skin at the entry points, and not used where there is known hypersensitivity to hyaluronic acid. Autoimmune disease is assessed individually rather than treated as an automatic bar.
Examination is done in good light, at rest and in movement, with the skin pinched to see how it recoils. Its purpose is to separate three things patients describe with one word: laxity of the skin envelope, descent of deeper structures, and loss of fat compartment volume. All three read as “sagging” in a mirror and are addressed differently. Nothing here substitutes for that examination.
The Visit, and Recovery
Topical anaesthetic is usual. The skin is cleaned, the points marked against the anatomy examined, and a fine needle makes a small deposit at each. Raised wheals appear as the material sits before dispersing — the expected appearance of a correct deposit, not a complication. No staging is stated here: the plan, and any interval between visits, is set individually at review.
Recovery varies. The wheals settle as tissue takes the material up; tenderness at the points is common and bruising is possible, more so near the mandibular angle and the tragus. What warrants prompt review rather than waiting: pain that increases instead of settling, skin turning dusky, white or mottled, spreading redness and warmth, or any visual disturbance.
Risks, Stated Plainly
The common events are local: bruising, swelling and tenderness at entry points, occasionally a palpable nodule. Infection is uncommon but possible with any needle through skin. Delayed inflammatory reactions to hyaluronic acid devices are described in the literature and are infrequent.
Vascular events — injection into a vessel, or compression of one — are rare. The Bio Aesthetic Points are chosen partly because the anatomy there is comparatively free of significant vessels, but low risk is not absence of risk. Hyaluronidase belongs on site wherever hyaluronic acid is injected.
How It Differs from the Adjacent Options
Cross-linked fillers are BDDE-cross-linked hyaluronic acid gels built to resist spread and hold projection; they occupy space and change contour. Same molecule, opposite engineering brief — see the dermal fillers guide.
Polynucleotides. Rejuran delivers polynucleotide fragments purified from salmon DNA, acting on fibroblast behaviour and repair signalling — a different molecule with a different target.
Hyaluronic acid skin boosters are non-cross-linked or lightly bonded HA placed intradermally to hydrate where they are put: same molecule, different formulation and spread profile. See skin boosters.
Collagen biostimulators — PLLA, PDLLA, calcium hydroxylapatite — act as resorbable scaffolds recruiting the patient’s own collagen over a longer arc; a structural intention rather than a skin-quality one.
Focused ultrasound. HIFU deposits thermal coagulation points at set depths including the SMAS, using energy rather than material, on its own timeline.
What Determines the Cost
Treatment is planned individually, so cost follows the plan rather than a published list.
Factors discussed at consultation
- The area treated. Face alone differs from face with neck, décolletage or hands.
- What the assessment finds. Envelope laxity, structural descent and fat compartment loss are different problems, and the finding decides the approach.
- Whether one modality or several. Some presentations suit a single injectable; others need approaches acting on different layers.
- How the plan is staged. Work spread over time is costed differently from work done in one visit.
A figure quoted before examination would not reflect your presentation. Cost is set out at consultation, before anything is agreed.