The Beauty Standard with Dr. Roy Kim

Korea Derma 2025: The Future of Aesthetic Treatments | Hybrid Fillers, PN Injectables & 6th Gen Technology | The Beauty Standard with Dr. Roy Kim

• Dr. Roy Kim

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Board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Roy Kim returns from Korea Derma 2025—Korea's largest dermatology conference—to reveal what's next in aesthetic medicine. 

Discover groundbreaking hybrid fillers combining HA with PDLLA and calcium hydroxyapatite, the safety profile of polynucleotide (PN) injectables like Rejuran, and why Korea is already working on 6th generation filler technology while the West uses 5th gen. 

Learn about dual molecular weight HA, micronized acellular dermal matrix, RF microneedling innovations, and Korea's multi-modality treatment approach that delivers instant results with long-term collagen stimulation. 

Whether you're a beauty enthusiast, aesthetic professional, or curious about the future of skincare, this episode unpacks what's real, what's hype, and what's coming next in aesthetic medicine.

Thank you for tuning in to this week's episode of "The Beauty Standard" with Dr. Roy Kim! If you enjoyed this episode, please make sure to subscribe, rate, and leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. Your support helps us continue to bring you the latest insights in aesthetic medicine and beauty trends.

Connect with us on social media on Instagram - @drroykim - or X - @drroykim- for more exclusive content, behind-the-scenes looks, and expert advice from Dr. Kim. Feel free to submit your questions or suggestions for future episodes – we'd love to hear from you!

Join us next week as we explore another fascinating topic in the world of beauty, and remember: your body, your choice, your standard!

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to the Beauty Standard with Dr. Roy Kim. Welcome back. This is the Beauty Standard with Dr. Roy Kim. I'm a board certified plastic surgeon and I just returned from Korea Derma 2025, Korea's largest dermatology conference. This is a masterclass in where aesthetics is headed. And today we're going to unpack what's real, what's hype, and what might be coming out next. In terms of neurotoxins, tech-wise, there is not much going on. There are no moonshots, no new products. However, the Hugo Benev partnership continues to mature, and Latibo, their approved product, keeps building presence and support. Since there are more choices now in the US, there is better pricing pressure for consumers. Next up is the combination mindset. So in my opinion, where Korea really excels is that combination or multiple modality treatments and care. They treat skin at multiple levels in a single long-term plan, including superficial, mid-depth, and deep. Superficial, of course, are skin care. There is skin booster or skin botox. Mid-depth, we can maybe classify skin boosters as that, but there's also neurotoxins to the muscle, most lasers, and most RF Nike needling devices. Finally, in terms of deep, there are energy devices, high foo, high-intense focus ultrasound, select lasers, and even more. It's culture plus competition. Patients do invest steadily or on a consistent basis, and Korean clinics compete on value, outcomes, and that consistency. I think the next topic, fillers, is a huge quantum leap in Korea as opposed to the US. The sprint is on regarding fillers. If the West is sitting on fifth generation fillers, Korea honestly is working on sixth generation ideas. Hybrid fillers, biostimulation, visible skin quality gains, and sometimes all from a single syringe or single treatment session. A familiar US example is Bellafill. So this is a product that's been out for some time. You have two products inside of it. You get an instant result from the collagen, and you get the long-term result from what's called PMMA, and you get a long-term result from PMA microspheres, a completely different chemical or compound. This actually stimulates your own collagen growth, and it is not collagen. This is why Bellafil offers 60-month or five-year durability. The collagen does not last for five years, but rather the PMMA microspheres encourage your own face's collagen to actually grow where the microspheres are, lasting up to five years. Korea has extended that hybrid logic to HA hyaluronic acid combined with PLLA slash PDLLA or calcium hydroxyapatite. So we'll go over what exactly those chemicals mean. Since it's a combination treatment, you have immediate smoothing and gradual collagen support over the next couple of months. And you will notice a significant improvement in skin texture and glow. So next up is dual weight HA. So this is hyaluronic acid, however, it's dual molecular weight hyaluronic acid, high molecular weight for structure and low molecular weight for glow. So instead of having two separate syringes, two different depths and two different passes, certain Korean HA fillers deliver both at the same time in one syringe and one treatment. So you can balance lift with luminosity. I personally have tried HA with PDLLA. So HA is still hyaluronic acid, but PDLLA is a cousin to PLLA. PLLA in the US is known as Sculptra. PDLLA really has no American equivalent. Now, they are smaller, more consistent microspheres or nodules. What's nice about it is that blended with HA, you get instant hydration and smoothness plus gradual collagen stimulation. Since the microspheres are smaller than what we know as sculptra, there's less chance of sort of biofilm occurring, an infection, some bad nodule forming even a month or two after injection. I have definitely personally noticed there's better moisture and radiance in my skin. And some of my colleagues have as well. So this product, the brand name, is called Juveluk. There are other hybrids, calcium hydroxyapatite and HA. So technically this is not radius, even though radius is the calcium hydroxide. Technically, this is not made by Mertz, which as you know makes radius, which is pure calcium hydroxyapatite. Rather, other companies have used this chemical, calcium hydroxyapatite, and combined it with HA hyaluronic acid to form other types of syringes. So you get a skin booster glow along with a subtle biostimulatory effect. Next up is human tissue. Korean teams have explored and now produced what we call micronized acellular dermal matrix. This is human dermal collagen processed into very tiny particles, and it's used as a filler or to enhance skin quality. In certain reconstructive cases, you can actually inject this from a syringe instead of directly placing it surgically, which is more elegant and a little less invasive. It is also used for cosmetic or aesthetic use, so we can use mycronized ADM for tear trough, cheek, nasolabia folds, other areas of face with moderate to deeper wrinkles. In the US, we technically do not have micronized ADM, acellular dermal matrix, for routine aesthetic use, but the concept is actually similar to what we have in the US. We have RENUVA, which is fat and is from MTFI Logics, and we also have dermoclay slash alloclay put fat in a syringe produced by Tiger Biosciences. Both of these options, separate companies, provide off-the-shelf grafting options when you don't want or don't have enough autologous fat. Polynucleotides. So PN injectables, and of course the biggest one out there is Regron. They continue to shine abroad, they continue to grow, and they have excellent skin quality, but interestingly they have a strong safety profile so far. Any injectable has risks, but PN is used very widely, with very few, to be honest, I couldn't really find a single serious vascular occlusion event yet. Now, this doesn't mean that it hasn't occurred or has not been reported, but to be honest, doing a literature search in November 2025, I actually could not find a single case study report, and my Korean dermatology friends have confirmed this. They feel this extremely safe as a filler. And especially placed superficially, PN targets texture and radiance much more than actual bulk volume. In terms of medical devices, Double Type by Agnes Medical cleverly pairs RF micro-needling with a microinjector, and so that actually gives you a skin booster at a different depth than the micro needling. So the heat from the micro needling doesn't actually degrade the skin booster product. You have two burns and one device. Although it's approved in Korea and in Europe, it is not U.S. cleared as of this recording. So specifically, the dual use is not cleared in the US by the FDA. In terms of professional grade skincare, topically Korean skincare clinics are doubling down on this technology. They do have a delivery choice as well, something known as spicules, S-P-I-C-U-L-E-S. These are tiny needle-like structures in master tropicals that create microchannels for better penetration. You'll feel a gentle prickle not bleeding. And the goal is sort of mild or some irritation so that active ingredients like retinoids, other things can reach your deeper skin target layers more effectively. I do not recommend DIY solutions with harsh abrasives. That formulation and technique with spicules are really where the magic happens. So if there's a single theme from Koreoderma, it's instant and durable. Bellafill teaches this model short-term visible improvement paired with a long-term collagen stimulus. Korea's hybrid fillers such as HA plus PDLLA, HA plus CAHA, Dual Weight HA, and more, these apply the same logic to skin quality and layered outcomes. It's less about one syringe, one job, and it's more about one syringe with multiple types of winning. So that's the download from Korea Derma 2025. Hybrids, smarter stacks, skin quality first, and devices that make delivery as important as the ingredient. If you want a deep dive on PDLLA plus H A, PN strategies, spacotechnology, or other things, please message me and let me know what you're exactly curious about. This is the Beauty Standard with Dr. Roy Kim. If today clarified your skin plan, definitely follow the show, leave a rating, and share it with a beauty or science friend. Thanks so much for listening. Thank you for listening to the Beauty Standard with Dr. Roy Kim. Make sure to follow for future topics and episodes.