Am I suitable for dermal fillers? Who qualifies, who waits, and which filler for which face

Who is suitable for dermal fillers, and what the assessment looks for

A filler occupies space. That single fact decides suitability more than age, skin type or the area you have in mind. You are a candidate when something is genuinely missing or was never there: cheeks and temples that have deflated, a tear trough that is a true groove rather than a puffy lid, a chin that sits behind the lower lip in profile, a low nasal bridge, or lips that are thin in proportion to the rest of the face. The dermal fillers guide sets out the materials; this page is about whether your face qualifies.

The assessment separates three processes that look alike in the mirror. Volume loss is deflation of the fat pads and remodelling of the bone beneath them. Laxity is skin and ligaments that have loosened and let tissue slide. Muscle is the folding of skin with expression. Filler answers only the first. Dr Sin Yong examines the whole face, at rest and in animation, because a deflated midface deepens the nasolabial fold, and the honest treatment for that fold is often the cheek above it, not the line itself. He checks skin recoil, tissue thickness over each area, and what has been injected before.

Where the face may already hold filler or fat graft, he scans with ultrasound to tell fat from filler from tissue before anything is added. Layering new product over an unknown layer is the commonest route to the heavy, rounded pillow face pattern.

Who is not a candidate, and who should wait

Some reasons are temporary, and the right answer is to wait. Treatment is deferred in pregnancy and breastfeeding, because fillers have not been studied in these groups and pregnancy changes the face in any case. It is deferred where there is an active infection at or near the site, including a cold sore, an acne flare or inflamed skin, until that has settled. An autoimmune or inflammatory condition in a flare is also a reason to pause; these conditions are assessed individually rather than excluded outright, but a flare is not the time to inject. A bleeding tendency or blood-thinning medicines are reviewed, because bruising is more likely and the plan may change.

Other reasons are about expectation, and here the answer is no rather than later. Filler does not lift a jowl, tighten loose skin or make a nose smaller, and a plan built on any of those will disappoint. Lines that appear only with expression follow the muscle, not a hollow, and belong to botulinum toxin. A previous non-resorbable filler such as silicone or PMMA must be declared, because layering hyaluronic acid over it raises the risk of nodules and infection, and the honest plan may be no filler at all.

Who should not have filler, in brief

• Pregnancy or breastfeeding: deferred
• Infection, cold sore, acne flare or inflamed skin near the site: treated first
• Autoimmune or inflammatory condition in a flare: assessed once settled
• Known allergy to hyaluronic acid, lidocaine or any component of the product
• Undeclared silicone, PMMA or unknown earlier filler in the area
• A goal filler cannot meet: lifting, tightening, a smaller nose, a change before a near event

Where goals are unrealistic, the plan is written with the option of no treatment included; the dermal filler gone wrong page explains what happens when that conversation is skipped.

“Suitability is not about whether a syringe fits the face. It is about whether volume is what the face is missing. If the answer is laxity, I will not fill it.”

Dr Sin YongOn who is suitable for filler

Which filler for which face: material follows tissue

Once you are suitable, the next question is which material, and the rule Dr Sin Yong applies is that the material follows the tissue it has to sit in. Areas that sit on bone and have to hold a shape, such as the nose bridge, cheekbone, chin and jawline, accept a firm product: a high-G′ hyaluronic acid where a dissolvable option is preferred or the shape has not yet been confirmed, and usually calcium hydroxylapatite or polycaprolactone for the support they give once it has. Areas that move constantly or sit close to the surface, such as the lips and the under-eye, accept only a soft hyaluronic acid, because a firm product would show as a ridge, hold water or feel wrong, and because reversibility matters most where a problem would be most visible.

The nose deserves its own line. Dr Sin Yong treats the bridge with a fine needle directly on the bone, in small amounts, because the nasal arteries make it a high-risk zone and bone is the shelf a projecting product needs. Filler can raise or straighten a bridge; it cannot make a nose smaller, and that is said before anything is planned.

When a biostimulator or lifting comes before filler

Being suitable for filler is not the same as filler being the first step. Two situations move it down the list. The first is diffuse deflation: a face that reads tired across the whole midface and temples rather than hollow at one point. Here a collagen biostimulator such as poly-L-lactic acid, or the microsphere products that give some support on the day and prompt collagen afterwards, is weighed against a volume gel, because placing gel point by point across a broad area is how faces end up over-filled.

The second is laxity. Where the examination finds jowls, a loose jawline or skin that no longer recoils, filler is the wrong first tool. Adding volume to a lax face makes it heavier, not younger. The plan then starts with lifting, usually VF Lift – Vertical Facelift on Volnewmer monopolar radiofrequency, or focused ultrasound where that suits the tissue, and filler is reconsidered afterwards for any hollow that remains. Where the face is already puffy with earlier product, the Time Freeze Laser LCLR® is considered to take away the excess before anything new is placed.

In both cases the sequence is decided by examination, not by what was asked for at the door.

What decides the plan, and what happens next

Fees are not advertised, because Singapore's rules do not allow it and because a figure before examination would describe someone else's face. What shapes the plan is the number of areas, what the examination finds in each, the material and the quantity the anatomy calls for, whether filler is combined with toxin, a biostimulator or energy-based lifting, and whether treatment is staged across visits. Correction of earlier filler is planned separately from new treatment; the how we quote page explains what a written plan contains.

If you are suitable, the visit begins with photographs and a written plan naming each area, product and plane. Product is placed in small increments and checked against the other side, with hyaluronidase kept in the room. Swelling, tenderness and some bruising at the entry points are expected; the dermal filler aftercare page covers what is normal. Pain out of proportion, skin that blanches or turns dusky, or any change in vision is reported the same day; the vascular occlusion warning signs page lists them.