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Deep Plane Facelift with a Temporal Lift

A deep plane facelift releases the retaining ligaments of the cheek and repositions the midface, jawline and neck as one composite flap[1]. What it does not do is raise your eyebrow. The dissection stops below the orbital rim, so the upper third of the face is a separate compartment and a separate operation[2]. This page explains what a temporal lift adds when the two are combined, what it costs in time and risk, and the case, which is a real one, for not having it.

Temporal Lift: A lateral brow and temple lift performed through a short incision inside the temporal hairline, elevating the outer third of the eyebrow and the soft tissue of the temple. When combined with a deep plane facelift it usually extends the incision the facelift already makes, adds well under an hour of operating time, and adds no separate recovery period.

Key Facts

What It Treats
Lateral brow tail and temple hollowing
What the Facelift Misses
The upper third, above the orbital rim
Additional Time
Usually under an hour
Incision
Usually an extension of the existing one
Additional Cost
Priced per surgeon, not per platform
Often Not Needed
When the real problem is upper-lid skin

Quick Answer

Should I add a temporal lift to my deep plane facelift?

Only if your brow tail is genuinely low. A deep plane facelift does not touch the brow, so if a heavy outer eye is part of what bothers you, something in the upper third has to address it. But the something is not always a temporal lift: in many faces the brow has barely moved and the heaviness is upper-eyelid skin, in which case a blepharoplasty is the right operation and adding a temporal lift on top of it over-elevates the brow. The test is simple enough to do in the mirror and again in consultation, and it is described below.

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Does a deep plane facelift lift the eyebrows?

No. A deep plane facelift works below the orbital rim: it releases the zygomatic and masseteric retaining ligaments and repositions the midface, jawline and neck. The eyebrow, the temple and the forehead sit above that dissection and are unchanged by it. Lifting the brow tail requires a separate procedure in the upper third, most commonly a temporal lift, which can be added in the same sitting through an extension of the facelift's own temporal incision.

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Where the Facelift Stops and the Upper Third Begins

The deep plane technique is defined by the layer it works in: the surgeon enters beneath the SMAS, divides the ligaments tethering it to the facial skeleton, and moves skin and muscle together as one unit[1]. Extended variants push that release further along the jawline and into the neck[2]. None of them push it upward past the orbital rim, because there is nothing useful to release there and the temporal branch of the facial nerve is in the way.

The practical consequence is the thing patients most often discover late. A face can be beautifully rejuvenated from the cheekbone down and still read as tired, because the outer eye has not moved. That is not a failure of the facelift. It is the boundary of the operation, and it is why the upper third gets discussed as its own decision.

Medical illustration of the temporal hairline incision used in facelift surgery, showing how the incision line sits within the hairline above the ear.
The deep plane facelift already opens the temporal hairline. A temporal lift added in the same sitting usually extends that line rather than adding a second scar, which is most of the reason the add-on is cheap in time.

The Case for Not Having One

Lambros photographed the same faces decades apart and measured what had actually moved. The finding that matters here is that eyebrow position changes much less with age than both patients and surgeons believe[3]. What changes is the upper-eyelid skin, which descends over the brow tail and produces the appearance of a fallen brow on a brow that has barely fallen.

This distinction decides the operation. If the heaviness is eyelid skin, an upper blepharoplasty removes it and the eye opens. Adding a temporal lift to that raises a brow that was never low, and the result is the permanently startled look that patients recognise instantly in other people and dread in themselves. If the brow tail genuinely sits low against the rim, blepharoplasty alone will not reach it and removing lid skin instead pulls the brow further down.

A temporal lift is the right answer when

  • The brow tail sits low against the lateral orbital rim, not just the lid skin above it
  • Lifting the lid skin by hand in the mirror does not open the outer corner of the eye
  • The temple is hollow and the outer brow has lost its arch
  • Crow's feet are driven by descended tissue rather than by muscle alone
  • You are already having a facelift, so the incision and the anaesthetic are paid for

Ask harder before agreeing when

  • Lifting the upper-lid skin by hand already gives you the eye you want
  • Your old photographs show the brow in roughly the position it is in now[3]
  • You have a high forehead or a receded temporal hairline already
  • Nobody has examined you upright, which is the only position brow height means anything in
  • It appeared on the quote without ever being discussed

Risks That Belong to This Part of the Face

  • The temporal branch of the facial nerve. It crosses the zygomatic arch within the temporoparietal fascia on its way to the forehead muscles[4]. Injury weakens or paralyses one eyebrow. The whole reason dissection is carried deep to that fascia at the arch is to keep it out of the field.
  • Hair loss along the incision. Alopecia at the temporal incision is a recognised complication of rhytidectomy and has its own literature[5]. Ask which incision design your surgeon uses and what he does about it.
  • An elevated hairline. A temporal lift that borrows its lift from the hairline instead of from released tissue moves the sideburn up. It is the single most recognisable signature of an over-pulled facelift and it is difficult to reverse.
  • Asymmetry. Brows are rarely level to begin with and the two sides are lifted separately. A surgeon who marks upright and photographs before and after is measuring; one who does neither is guessing.

What It Adds to the Bill

Combining procedures in one session has been standard practice in aesthetic surgery for decades, and the economic argument has always been the shared one: a single anaesthetic, a single theatre booking and a single recovery[6]. The temporal lift is an unusually clean example, because it also shares the incision.

We are not going to print an average here. Surgeons on this directory quote the temporal lift as its own line and the figures differ by country, by currency and by what the fee actually covers, so a single number would be wrong for almost everyone reading it. The Cost Index publishes a band for a procedure only once enough surgeons in the same country have declared one in the same currency, which for this operation is a threshold not every country has reached. Until it does, the honest source of the number is the surgeon you are considering, in writing.

The wider picture of what a facelift costs, and what the quoted figure does and does not include, is on the deep plane facelift cost page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does a deep plane facelift lift the eyebrows?
No, and this surprises many patients. A deep plane facelift releases the zygomatic and masseteric retaining ligaments and repositions the midface, jawline and neck as a composite flap. Its dissection and its vector stop below the orbital rim, so the eyebrow, the temple and the forehead are anatomically outside the operation. A patient whose main complaint is a heavy, descended brow tail will still have that brow tail after an excellent deep plane facelift unless the upper third is addressed separately.
What is a temporal lift and how is it different from a brow lift?
A temporal lift, also called a temple lift or a lateral brow lift, elevates the outer third of the eyebrow and the soft tissue of the temple through a short incision inside the temporal hairline. A full brow lift raises the whole brow and the forehead, usually endoscopically or through a coronal or hairline incision, and it also acts on the frown muscles between the brows. The temporal lift is the smaller, more targeted operation: it changes the tail of the brow and the crow's-feet area, and it leaves the central brow position alone. Because it is smaller, it is also cheaper and quicker, which is why it is treated as its own line on a surgeon's price sheet rather than being folded into brow lift.
Do I need a temporal lift with my deep plane facelift?
Often not, and this is worth arguing about with your surgeon before you agree to it. Photographic studies of the same faces over decades show that eyebrow position itself changes far less with age than patients and surgeons assume; what changes is the upper-eyelid skin draping over the brow tail, which reads as a droop. If that is your anatomy, an upper blepharoplasty is the operation that fixes the appearance, and a temporal lift added on top of it will over-elevate the brow and produce the surprised look nobody wants. A temporal lift earns its place when the brow tail itself sits low against the orbital rim, when the temple is hollow, or when lifting the upper-lid skin alone would leave the outer eye corner heavy.
How much time and cost does a temporal lift add to a facelift?
A deep plane facelift already carries its incision up into the temporal hairline, so when a temporal lift is added in the same sitting the surgeon usually extends that incision rather than making a new one. The added operating time is typically well under an hour and there is no separate recovery period: swelling and bruising resolve on the facelift's own timeline. Cost is a different question and there is no single answer to it. Surgeons quote the temporal lift as its own add-on, and the figures they publish on this directory vary widely by country and by what the fee includes. Ask for the figure in writing from the surgeon you are actually considering rather than trusting a platform average.
What are the risks specific to the temporal lift?
Two risks belong to this part of the face rather than to the facelift generally. The first is injury to the temporal (frontal) branch of the facial nerve, which crosses the zygomatic arch inside the temporoparietal fascia on its way to the forehead muscles; damage there weakens or paralyses one eyebrow. Surgeons work in a plane deep to that fascia at the arch precisely to stay away from it, and permanent injury is uncommon in experienced hands. The second is hair loss along the temporal incision, which is a recognised complication of any rhytidectomy that opens the temporal hairline, and an elevated or receded temporal hairline is the classic visible tell of an over-pulled facelift. Ask a surgeon how he plans the temporal incision, whether he uses a trichophytic or pretrichial approach, and what happens to your hairline.
Can a temporal lift be done later as a separate operation?
Yes. Unlike a neck lift, which shares a continuous anatomical plane with the facelift and is awkward to stage, the temporal lift is a genuinely separate operation in a separate compartment and can be performed years later under local anaesthesia if you decide you want it. The argument for doing it in the same sitting is practical rather than anatomical: one anaesthetic, one recovery, one incision, and a surgeon who is already working in that plane. The argument for waiting is that you will know after your facelift has settled at six months whether the brow tail still bothers you, and a good number of patients find it does not.

Key Facts

Deep plane facelift does not elevate the eyebrow
Temporal lift elevates the lateral third of the eyebrow
Apparent brow descent is often caused by upper eyelid skin laxity
Temporal branch of the facial nerve runs within the temporoparietal fascia

What to Do Next

Read the neighbouring decisions

The upper third is usually one conversation, not three. The brow lift and eyelid surgery pages cover the two operations a temporal lift is most often confused with.

Ask a surgeon for the figure

Browse surgeons who publish their own price for this operation rather than an average of everyone else's.

Browse surgeons

References

  1. 01
    Hamra ST. The deep-plane rhytidectomy. Plast Reconstr Surg. 1990;86(1):53-61(opens in new tab)(Journal Article)Accessed: 2026-03-21DOI: 10.1097/00006534-199007000-00008
  2. 02
    Jacono AA, Bryant LM. Extended Deep Plane Facelift: Incorporating Facial Retaining Ligament Release and Composite Flap Shifts to Maximize Midface, Jawline and Neck Rejuvenation. Clin Plast Surg. 2018;45(4):527-554(opens in new tab)(Journal Article)Accessed: 2026-08-05DOI: 10.1016/j.cps.2018.06.007
  3. 03
    Lambros V. Observations on periorbital and midface aging. Plast Reconstr Surg. 2007;120(5):1367-1376(opens in new tab)(Journal Article)Accessed: 2026-03-21DOI: 10.1097/01.prs.0000279348.09156.c3
  4. 04
    Yang SH, Park H, Yoo DS, Joo W, Rhoton A. Microsurgical anatomy of the facial nerve. Clin Anat. 2021;34(1):90-102(opens in new tab)(Journal Article)Accessed: 2026-08-05DOI: 10.1002/ca.23652
  5. 05
    Eremia S, Umar SH, Li CY. Prevention of temporal alopecia following rhytidectomy: the prophylactic use of minoxidil. A study of 60 patients. Dermatol Surg. 2002;28(1):66-74(opens in new tab)(Journal Article)Accessed: 2026-08-05DOI: 10.1046/j.1524-4725.2002.01066.x
  6. 06
    Pitanguy I, Ceravolo MP. Our experience with combined procedures in aesthetic plastic surgery. Plast Reconstr Surg. 1983;71(1):56-65(opens in new tab)(Journal Article)Accessed: 2026-08-05DOI: 10.1097/00006534-198301000-00013
Cite this pageCC-BY 4.0
DEEPPLANE™ Editorial Team (2026). Deep Plane Facelift with a Temporal Lift. DEEPPLANE™. Retrieved from https://deepplane.com/what-is-deep-plane-facelift/with-temporal-lift

Content licensed CC-BY 4.0. Free to share with attribution to DEEPPLANE™.

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Why This Matters

Temporal lift is the third most requested add-on among patients who tell us which operations they are considering, ahead of brow lift and lip lift, and it was the only one of them with no page on this site. It also carries the clearest case on the whole combined-procedure cluster for declining an operation you were offered, which is a thing a directory paid by surgeons has every incentive not to write down.

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