Background: During minimally invasive aesthetic procedures, the skin is often pinched to facilitate filler injection or thread insertion into the desired layer. However, little is known about changes in the facial layers during pinch manipulation.
Objective: To determine which layer of the temple is lifted during pinching and whether the artery and the nerve are affected by pinching.
Materials and methods: At 11 sites on 3 fresh Korean cadavers, the skin of the temple was pinched gently or deeply, and the skin pulled up was cut at the bottom. The exposed areas were grossly and histologically examined.
Results: With gentle pinching, the subcutaneous fat and superficial temporal fascia (STF) layer were separated, and the fat was removed with the skin. The superficial temporal artery and temporal branches of the facial nerve were intact. With deep pinching, the STF was separated from the deep temporal fascia and lifted with the skin.
Conclusion: When thread lifting is performed, deep pinching is helpful for anchoring thread to the temporal fascia, whereas gentle pinching helps to insert thread into the safe subcutaneous fat layer, where no significant blood vessels or nerves are present.