Choose Profhilo if your skin has become dry, dull or slightly lax across the face, neck, décolletage or hands. Choose polynucleotides if the problem is thin or crepey skin, uneven texture, or the skin under your eyes, where Profhilo is not used.
Neither adds volume, and they are often used together rather than one instead of the other. If you cannot tell which you need, or whether you need either, that is what a consultation is for.
What is the difference between Profhilo and polynucleotides?
Profhilo is a very high concentration of pure hyaluronic acid, made without the chemical cross-linking used in dermal fillers. That difference is the point. Instead of staying where it is placed and adding volume, it spreads through the tissue over 24 to 48 hours and acts on the skin itself. It goes in at five fixed points on each side of the face, which takes about fifteen minutes.
Polynucleotides are purified fragments of DNA, most commonly derived from salmon or trout, injected into the skin to support its own repair processes. They are not fillers either, and they are not suitable if you have a fish allergy.
In short, Profhilo works mainly on hydration and firmness, and polynucleotides on the quality and repair of the skin.
What does Profhilo do well?
Hydration and firmness across a wide area. It suits skin that has become dry, dull or slightly lax, most commonly from the late thirties onwards, on the lower face, the neck, the décolletage or the hands. It is a good first injectable treatment for someone who does not want to look treated.
The change is the kind you notice in photographs and in the way make-up sits, rather than in the mirror on any particular morning.
What do polynucleotides do well?
Improving the skin itself: thin or crepey skin, dull or uneven texture, sun-damaged skin and some acne scarring. They suit anyone who wants an improvement without any change in the shape of their face, and who can wait for it. They work slowly, and will not give a fast result.
Where do they overlap, and where do they differ?
Both work on the skin rather than on the shape of the face. Neither fills a line, restores lost volume or tightens significant sagging, and neither gives a visible change the following morning. Both are a course rather than a single treatment, both are injected, and both are £200 a session here.
They differ in where they go and what they do. Profhilo is used across broad areas and works mainly on hydration and firmness. Polynucleotides are used on the face and neck, including under the eyes, and work on the skin's own repair.
Can Profhilo or polynucleotides be used under the eyes?
Polynucleotides can. Profhilo is not placed directly under the eyes. This is where polynucleotides are most useful, particularly for someone who has been told they are not a candidate for tear trough filler.
Be clear about what they can do there. They will not remove a shadow caused by hollowing. They improve the quality and thickness of the skin over it, which for some people is enough, and for others makes filler safer and more predictable later. Swelling at the injection points is short-lived, bruising is more likely under the eyes than elsewhere, and most people are presentable the next day.
How many sessions do you need, and what does it cost?
Profhilo is two sessions, four weeks apart, then one session about every six months, though some people go longer. Judge it six to eight weeks after the second session. Very little happens in the first two weeks.
Polynucleotides are three sessions, about three weeks apart, then one session every six to nine months. Each takes about twenty minutes. Judge them once the course is finished, not between sessions.
At our clinic in Donington, near Spalding and Boston, each session of either is £200, and Profhilo costs the same on the neck, décolletage or hands as on the face. The figure worth comparing is the first year, which is the session prices added up. For Profhilo that is £600: the course of two, then one maintenance session about six months later. For polynucleotides it is £800: the course of three, then one maintenance session six to nine months later.
A single session of either will not give you the result. Any clinic selling you one without explaining that is not being straight with you.
Can you have Profhilo and polynucleotides together?
Yes, and they are often used together. Someone whose cheeks and neck have become dry and slightly lax, and whose under-eye skin is thin, might have Profhilo for the first and polynucleotides for the second. The order and spacing are planned at your consultation, and each session is £200, whichever it is.
When is neither the right answer?
When the problem is lost volume. Hollow cheeks, or a hollow under the eye, need structure, and no skin booster will replace it. That is a job for carefully placed filler, where it suits you, and sometimes filler is the better place to start.
When the problem is the surface of the skin. Shallow acne scarring and uneven texture can respond to microneedling, and brown marks from sun damage respond better to laser treatment for pigmentation.
And when the problem is the sun. Some of what people hope a skin booster will fix responds better to sun protection and time. Daily sun protection costs a fraction of a course, and it protects whatever else you decide to do.
A consultation is free, and you will be told if neither treatment is the answer.
Each treatment has its own page, with the full protocol, the price and the questions people ask most.