Dermal fillers
Injectable
Hyaluronic acid gel placed in specific planes to restore support where the face has lost it, or to change a proportion you have never liked.
from $600 About Dermal fillers →
Concern · Face & skin
Dark Circles and Under-Eye HollowsWhat it is, and what we can do about it.
Under-eye hollows, also called tear troughs, are depressions between the lower eyelid and the cheek caused by loss of volume and increasing prominence of the bony orbital rim, producing a shadow that reads as tiredness; the shadow can be improved when it is structural, but under-eye darkness caused by pigment or thin skin will not respond to filler.
- Nurse-practitioner-led
- Plan before treatment
- 444 Holland St W, Bradford
Alex Dinovich, FNP-PHC Nurse Practitioner & Medical Director · Licence #13564840
02 · The honest version
The honest version
of dark circles and under-eye hollows.
Hollows, shadows and dark circles under the eyes, the four different causes behind them, and an honest account of which ones filler can help.
- -A visible groove running from the inner corner of the eye toward the cheek
- -Shadowing under the eyes that persists no matter how much you sleep
- -Looking tired or unwell in photographs
- -Concealer settling into the hollow and making it more obvious
- -Brown or bluish discolouration under the eyes
- -Puffiness above the hollow, making it look deeper
Every face is different. This page is the general picture. What is actually happening on your skin is something a nurse should look at up close, in clinic light, before anyone recommends a treatment.
Does it get worse? That depends on the concern and on you. It is a reason to start early, not a reason to panic - and we will tell you plainly where you are rather than where a treatment plan would be easiest to sell.
Why this area is different
The under-eye is the region people most want treated and the region where treatment most often goes wrong. There are good reasons for both.
The skin here is the thinnest on the face. There is very little fat between skin and muscle. The underlying anatomy includes a bony rim, distinct fat compartments and a ligament that tethers the skin down, and it changes shape with age in ways that are highly individual. Everything you place here shows.
So the most valuable part of any under-eye consultation is not the injection. It is working out what is actually causing what you see.
Four different causes, often mixed
Structural hollowing. As the orbital bone remodels and the fat pads beneath the eye lose volume, a groove develops between the lower lid and the cheek. Light falls into that groove and casts a shadow. This is the cause that responds best to filler, because there is a genuine depression to restore.
Pigmentation. Brown discolouration in the under-eye skin itself, which is more common in richer skin tones and often familial. It is unaffected by lighting angle and completely unaffected by filler. It is addressed with pigment-directed treatment and sun protection.
Vascular visibility. Blue or purple tones from the network of vessels beneath thin, translucent skin. Adding filler under discoloured skin does not remove the discolouration, and in some cases makes the area look greyer. Improving skin thickness is the more logical approach.
Fat prolapse, or bags. Fat pads in the lower lid pushing forward, producing a bulge that in turn deepens the appearance of the groove below it. This is a structural issue that filler cannot correct, and significant prolapse is a surgical question.
Most people have some combination. That is precisely why an honest assessment sometimes concludes that the treatment you came in for is not the one that will help.
The lighting test
Try this before your appointment. Stand in front of a mirror with a lamp positioned above you, then hold the light source below your face and look again.
If the darkness noticeably lightens when the light comes from below, it is shadow, and it is structural. If it looks essentially identical from both angles, it is pigment sitting in the skin, and no amount of volume will change it.
This simple test does more to set realistic expectations than anything else we can tell you.
What we offer, and when
Dermal filler in the tear trough, placed conservatively and deeply, is appropriate for genuine structural hollowing in someone with reasonable skin quality and without significant lower lid puffiness. Product choice, depth and volume all matter enormously here, and less is consistently better.
PDRN and polynucleotides are used to improve the quality, thickness and hydration of the under-eye skin itself. Where thin, crepey or translucent skin is the problem, this addresses the actual cause rather than working around it.
Skinboosters hydrate and improve skin quality across the area without adding structural volume.
PRP uses growth factors from your own blood to support skin quality in the periorbital region.
Our threshold for saying no
We decline under-eye filler more often than any other treatment we offer. The reasons are usually one of these: the darkness is pigmentary rather than structural, there is significant lower lid fat prolapse, the skin quality is not sufficient to hide product, or the expectation is for a result that filler cannot produce.
If any of those apply to you, we will tell you at the consultation and explain what would actually help. A visible bad result in this area is difficult to live with while it settles, and we would rather lose the booking.
Injectable treatments here are performed by regulated nurses within a nurse-practitioner-led practice, and you are entitled to ask who will be treating you and what their experience with this specific area is. Ask us. Ask any clinic.
04 · What we actually offer
Four things, and
what each one does.
These are the ones we use for dark circles and under-eye hollows. Not every face needs all of them, and we will say so. The goal in every case is the same: treat the cause, not the photograph.
PDRN / polynucleotides
Injectable
Purified DNA fragments injected into fragile or damaged skin to support repair, most often used where the tissue is thin and filler would be wrong.
Set at consultation About PDRN / polynucleotides →
Skinboosters
Injectable
Soft hyaluronic acid spread through the skin itself to improve hydration, bounce and light reflection, without changing your shape.
from $595 About Skinboosters →
PRP microneedling
Injectable
Microneedling combined with platelet-rich plasma taken from your own blood on the day, used to push the skin's repair response further.
from $599 About PRP microneedling →
Every plan is personalised. Which of these you need, in what order and how often, is decided after a nurse has looked at your skin - not before. We will also tell you when a treatment is wrong for you, and we say it before you book.
05 · What actually happens
Come in as you are.
Nobody here will
react to your skin.
If you have been putting this off, this section is for you. A consultation costs you nothing and commits you to nothing - you are allowed to walk out having booked absolutely nothing.
- Sheli greets you at the front desk
She is the one who answers the phone and the texts, so you will already have spoken to her. No clipboard interrogation in the waiting room.
- A nurse looks at your skin properly
In clinic light, up close, with your makeup off if you are wearing any. This is the part people dread and it takes about a minute.
- We ask about the history, not just the face
When it happens, what you had noticed before it happened, what you have already tried and what made it worse. Bring your current products if it is easy.
- You get a written plan and a real price
What we would do, in what order, and what it costs - including the option of doing nothing yet. If a treatment is wrong for you, we say so here, not after.
- You decide in your own time
Nothing is booked in the room unless you want it booked. No deposit, no pressure, no offer that expires on Friday.
Always so kind and personal. Took the extra time to make sure I was comfortable.
06 · Straight answers
Dark Circles and Under-Eye Hollows, asked
and answered.
The questions people actually ask us on the phone, answered the way we answer them on the phone.
Will filler fix my dark circles?
Only if the darkness is caused by a shadow. Under-eye darkness has several distinct causes, and filler addresses exactly one of them. If your darkness is a shadow cast by a hollow, restoring volume can improve it substantially. If it is brown pigmentation in the skin, or blue-purple vessels visible through thin skin, filler will not fix it and may make the area look worse by adding bulk under discoloured skin. Establishing which you have is the whole point of the consultation.
How do I tell what type of dark circles I have?
A useful home test is to look in a mirror with a light held below your face rather than above it. Shadow-based darkness lightens or disappears when the light comes from below, because you have removed the shadow. Pigment stays exactly the same regardless of the lighting. Gently stretching the skin can also help: vascular darkness from underlying vessels often becomes more apparent, while pigment does not change.
Is tear trough filler risky?
The under-eye is one of the more technically demanding areas in aesthetics. The skin is very thin, the anatomy is unforgiving, and there are important vascular structures nearby. Complications including lumpiness, prolonged swelling, a bluish discolouration known as the Tyndall effect, and rare but serious vascular events are all recognised. It should be done by an experienced injector who will decline when you are not a good candidate, and the risks should be discussed with you individually beforehand.
Why do some people look worse after under-eye filler?
Usually because they were not the right candidate, or too much product was placed. Filler in an area with significant lower lid puffiness, poor skin quality or a strong pigmentary component can accentuate exactly what someone was trying to hide. This is why we would rather assess and decline than treat and apologise. Hyaluronic acid filler can be dissolved if a result is not right, which is a genuine safety feature of the product class.
What is PDRN and how does it help the under-eye?
PDRN, or polynucleotides, are injectable fragments derived from DNA that are used to support skin quality rather than to add volume. In the under-eye area the aim is improved skin thickness, hydration and texture rather than filling a hollow. It is often the more appropriate choice where the skin itself is the problem, and it is sometimes used before or instead of filler.
Are my under-eye bags the same thing as hollows?
No, and they often occur together which makes it confusing. A hollow is a depression. A bag is a bulge, usually caused by fat pads in the lower lid pushing forward, sometimes with fluid. Filling a hollow beneath a prominent bag can improve the transition between the two, but significant fat prolapse is a surgical issue and no amount of filler will resolve it. We will tell you if that is what we see.
Does lack of sleep really cause dark circles?
It makes existing darkness look worse rather than creating it from nothing. Fatigue causes fluid retention and mild vasodilation, and it tends to make the whole face look flatter, which deepens shadow. That is why the area looks better after a good week and never fully resolves after one. If your circles persist regardless of sleep, the underlying cause is structural, vascular or pigmentary.
What if I am not a good candidate?
Then we will say so and tell you what would actually help, which might be skin-quality treatment, addressing pigment, or in some cases a surgical referral. The under-eye is the area where we decline most often, and it is not because we do not want the booking. It is because a poor result here is highly visible and much harder to walk back than a poor result elsewhere.
Where this comes from
Check it yourself.
We would rather you did not take our word for any of this. These are the sources behind what is written above, and none of them are ours.
- Infraorbital hyaluronic acid filler, common aesthetic side effects and prevention (Aesthetic Surgery Journal Open Forum, 2022)
- Health Canada: Cosmetic injections
- Age-related changes of the human facial skeleton (Scientific Reports, 2023)
- Research on the ageing face, a narrative history (Journal of Personalized Medicine, 2024)
07 · Often confused, often alongside
Not sure it's
dark circles and under-eye hollows?
Concerns are regularly mistaken for one another - and they rarely turn up entirely alone. These are the ones that sit closest to it.
08 · The next step is small
Let a nurse look
at it properly.
A dark circles and under-eye hollows consultation costs you nothing and commits you to nothing. You will leave knowing what your skin is doing, what we would do about it, and what it would cost - whether or not you book anything.
- Address444 Holland St W, Unit #2
Bradford, ON L3Z 0G1 - Phone647-333-6805
- Emailinfo@bradfordskinclinic.com
- HoursMon, Tue, Thu 9am-7pm
Wed 9am-5pm
Fri, Sat 9am-4pm
Sun Closed
Bring three things. Whatever you are currently putting on your face, a rough idea of when it is at its worst, and any questions you have written down. That is genuinely all the preparation we need.
Makeup is fine either way. If it is easier to arrive with it on, arrive with it on - there is a mirror and a cleanser in the room.
4.9 · 460 Google reviews