Pinch anatomy: An injection guide for temple filler injections.

ABSTRACT

Filler injections have become exceedingly popular in the last decade, and injectors across the globe are using them for facial contouring and reversing the age-related changes. Thorough knowledge about the anatomy of important vessels and tissue planes is essential for injectors. During filler injections, injectors generally tend to pinch or pull the tissues with the nondominant hand for the ease of the procedure. These deformational forces lead to some changes in the anatomy of tissue layers held in a pinch. During pinch maneuver, the important arteries in that region can get pulled up in the tissue layers held in a pinch or stay in their position unaffected. The pinch can also increase the tissue space for injections by moving the mobile tissue layers away from the fixed ones. Knowledge of this "pinch anatomy" in the temple can be used to the injector's advantage to avoid important arteries and to place filler in the correct plane.