Cover The Hera Clinic’s Dr Philip Dong
The Hera Clinic’s Dr Philip Dong
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At The Hera Clinic, a cardiothoracic surgeon’s training meets a deeply personal philosophy—one where the best results are the ones nobody notices
The first thing that distinguishes Dr Philip Dong’s approach to aesthetic medicine is not a technique or a technology. It is a point of view. “The best aesthetic work should rarely be obvious,” he says. "The goal is not to create faces that look artificially flawless, but to achieve results that feel harmonious, refreshed, and believable.”
It is a position shaped by an unusual clinical background. Before founding The Hera Clinic at Asia Square Tower 2 in Singapore's Central Business District, Dr Dong completed a Clinical Fellowship in Cardiothoracic Surgery at Royal Papworth NHS Foundation Trust in the United Kingdom. He is a Member of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons England, holds a Diploma in Dermatology with Distinction from Queen Mary University of London, and trained in medicine at the University of Manchester. The precision and discipline that surgical training demands are qualities he carries, unchanged, into every consultation and treatment room.
The Hera Clinic itself reflects this sensibility. Named for the Greek goddess associated with elegance, strength, and enduring beauty, the space balances marble flooring and metallic accents with warm wood tones and ambient lighting—medically serious, but never cold.
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What he is injecting—and why it matters
Above Fewer visit The Hera Clinic requesting dramatic volume; instead, more are asking how to slow what is being lost
Fewer visit The Hera Clinic requesting dramatic volume; instead, more are asking how to slow what is being lost
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The most telling signal of where aesthetic medicine is heading is not a new technology. It is a change in what patients are asking for. Fewer visit The Hera Clinic requesting dramatic volume; instead, more are asking how to slow what is being lost.
Dr Dong’s answer to that question is increasingly biostimulators—specifically the CaHA biostimulator, a calcium hydroxylapatite-based injectable that functions on two levels simultaneously. Administered at full concentration, it provides immediate structural contouring. Diluted into a hyper-dilute formulation, it shifts role entirely: stimulating fibroblast activity and the gradual production of new collagen, improving skin thickness, elasticity, and tissue quality over time without creating the tell-tale fullness of an overfilled face.
“We describe biostimulators to patients as a long-term collagen investment rather than a quick cosmetic fix,” Dr Dong explains. “By improving collagen production, we are not just addressing visible concerns in the short term—we are helping to improve the overall quality, resilience, and structural support of the skin over time.”
Dermal fillers remain a core part of his practice—but deployed with a specificity rather than a maximalist hand. His approach draws on structural frameworks including the MD Codes methodology, adapted case by case to the individual's anatomy, ageing pattern, and facial proportions. The governing principle is a simple one. “With fillers,” he says, “less is often more.” Overcorrection, in his view, is most often the product of trying to resolve everything at once. His preferred approach is staged across multiple sessions—building gradually, preserving character, maintaining what he calls the “imperfectly perfect” quality that distinguishes a face that has been thoughtfully treated from one that has been corrected into blankness.
“Imperfectly perfect is what true aesthetic refinement looks like," shares Dr Dong.
The machine he trusts for lifting
Above When it comes to non-surgical lifting, Dr Dong’s technology of choice is Ultherapy Prime
When it comes to non-surgical lifting, Dr Dong’s technology of choice is Ultherapy Prime
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When it comes to non-surgical lifting, Dr Dong’s technology of choice is Ultherapy Prime—and his reasons for preferring it are grounded in anatomy rather than brand loyalty. Ultherapy Prime is currently the only non-surgical treatment that can reach the SMAS layer, the same foundational structural plane addressed during a surgical facelift. For someone with Dr Dong’s background, that specificity matters considerably.
The device operates across three tissue depths: 4.5 mm to target the SMAS layer; 3.0 mm for the deep dermis, where collagen concentration is highest; and 1.5 mm for the superficial dermis, where texture and fine lines are addressed. Proprietary real-time imaging allows Dr Dong to map and target treatment precisely before delivering energy. The updated Prime platform runs approximately 30 per cent faster than its predecessor and, by most patient accounts, more comfortably.
Results develop progressively over two to three months as newly stimulated collagen matures, with improvements in lift, firmness, and skin quality lasting between 12 and 18 months. Downtime is negligible—mild redness typically resolves within 30 minutes, and patients leave able to apply makeup immediately.
The procedure that separates injectors
Above According to Dr Dong, the nose is one of the most vascularly complex regions of the face, where the risks of improper technique carry consequences well beyond a bruise
According to Dr Dong, the nose is one of the most vascularly complex regions of the face, where the risks of improper technique carry consequences well beyond a bruise
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Non-surgical rhinoplasty is, by some clinical consensus, the procedure that most reliably distinguishes a technically skilled injector from one who is not. The nose sits at the proportional centre of the face, meaning every adjustment—however measured—has an outsized effect on overall facial harmony. It is also, Dr Dong is direct about this, one of the most vascularly complex regions of the face, where the risks of improper technique carry consequences well beyond a bruise.
“A beautiful nose is not determined by height alone, but by how it integrates proportionally with the rest of the face,” he explains. Nasofrontal and nasolabial angles, tissue plane identification, filler selection, and meticulous volume control all inform his technique. He is equally direct about what the procedure cannot achieve: fillers do not reduce nasal mass or remove tissue. What they can do, in experienced hands, is alter how the nose reads in relation to the rest of the face—smoothing a dorsal hump, improving a low bridge, or creating a more refined profile through carefully considered optical correction. Results typically last between nine and 18 months.
The longer view
Above Dr Dong established The Hera Clinic on a belief that aesthetic medicine was moving, however slowly, toward something more considered
Dr Dong established The Hera Clinic on a belief that aesthetic medicine was moving, however slowly, toward something more considered
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Dr Dong established The Hera Clinic on a belief that aesthetic medicine was moving, however slowly, toward something more considered. “The future of aesthetics is becoming less about transformation and more about regeneration, prevention, and longevity,” he says.
His patients, increasingly, arrive already thinking this way. They are not asking to look different. They are asking to age on their own terms, with their own faces—and with the reassurance of a doctor whose meticulous eye was honed, long before the first filler, in an operating theatre.
Learn more about The Hera Clinic’s approach to regenerative and non-surgical aesthetic treatments here.
The Hera Clinic, Asia Square Tower 2#01-09, 12 Marina View, Singapore 018961 | theheraclinic.com | +65 65142374
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Andrea Saadan is the Senior Digital Editor of Tatler Singapore. She oversees all digital content for the website and currently leads the Beauty and Lifestyle verticals. As a child, she had always enjoyed reading and writing but it was only after she joined her college newspaper, The Spectrum, in Buffalo, New York, that she considered a career in journalism. Her love for all things beauty started from the age of two—when she was caught playing with (and damaging) her mother’s YSL lipstick. On top of her day job, she is also an unpaid beauty consultant for friends and family. Besides make-up, her obsessions include the wizarding world of Harry Potter, podcasts, ice-cream, her walking pad and watching endless re-runs of The Office (US).
