Dermal Fillers: What Is The Best Option?

“What's the best dermal filler?” is a really good question that I often get asked as an aesthetics doctor. Most of the dermal fillers you might have heard of are hyaluronic acid fillers. The biggest brands of hyaluronic acid fillers that you might have heard of are Juvederm, Teoxane, Belotero and Restylane.

Why might you pick the bigger drug companies versus cheaper products that you've never heard of? Well, the bigger brand companies spend a lot of money in research and development to make sure that they have the best products on the market for their purpose. You see that in the face because they are more likely to adapt to the facial movement a wee bit better and look a bit more natural. So these are great products for that reason.

The second reason they are great products is because they are tested more frequently, so we can ensure that each syringe you get off the production line is both consistent in terms of the product itself, but also safe. Most of us injectors pick the bigger brand products and pay the extra money because we like to have that peace of mind. If you're going for a cheaper product, you might not get the same results and this long-term safety is perhaps questionable. So that's the reason why some of us pick the bigger brand products.

There is another group of fillers though that are gaining popularity in the market at the moment. These are Biostimulatory fillers. These are fillers that when you inject them under the skin will, over a course of time, improve the skin texture and quality. So that's an additional benefit over hyaluronic acid fillers. These have actually been around for quite a long time, but they lost popularity many years ago because in the event of a complication they are more difficult to treat, whereas, hyaluronic acid fillers can be dissolved by an enzyme called hyaluronidase.

Ultimately it depends on what you feel comfortable with, what your injector feels comfortable with and what your main priorities are (whether it's safety or longterm outcome). I, as an injector, personally love Belotero and I really like Radiesse. There are lots of reasons why I would justify that to myself, but that doesn't mean I'm dissing the other brands at all and I would recommend you talk to your injector about what might be best for you.

For more information, see our dermal fillers treatment page or book now!