What the research shows
The operation is planned around one nerve. The branch of the facial nerve that raises the forehead crosses the temple in a predictable layer, and surgeons dissect in a plane that avoids it (Liebman 1982). A surgeon reporting more than 500 subcutaneous temporal lifts over twenty years saw no permanent nerve injury, no hair loss and mostly passing numbness (Chen 2026).
There are several ways to do it. The gliding brow lift frees the skin from the muscles under the brow through tiny incisions and holds the new position with a temporary stitched net on the skin (Viterbo 2019). In one surgeon's patients the brow tail stayed about 3 millimeters higher at one year (Orra 2025). An endoscopic temporal lift raised the inner and outer brow by about 2 millimeters each, with very few complications (Rohrich 2019). An extended gliding lift raised the brow tail a little more, with mostly satisfied patients (Sozer 2026).
The temple lift can also carry the midface and outer eye corner. A temporal facelift that combined a deep midface lift, corner-of-eye tightening and a brow lift caused temporary forehead weakness on one side in about 1 in 20, gone in about three months on average (Şirinoglu 2025).
How the lift is held matters. Some height is lost over the first year whatever the method; a mesh anchor held the outer brow best in a comparison of three fixation methods (Pascali 2015).
Where surgeons disagree
- Temporal lift or a stitch from inside the eyelid. When combined with upper eyelid surgery, a small randomized trial found a temporal lift did not measurably raise the outer brow at six months, while an internal brow stitch placed through the eyelid incision did (Zandi 2018); in another trial the internal stitch added fullness to the outer brow and lid (Figueiredo 2024). Gliding lift series report lasting outer brow elevation (Orra 2025).
- How close the net stitches come to the nerve. In cadavers, the gliding lift's skin stitches passed nearer the forehead nerve than a stitch anchored to bone; clinical series have not reported lasting nerve injury from it (Prantl 2026).
- Toxin as an alternative. Botulinum toxin in the muscle that pulls the outer brow down raised the outer brow by a few millimeters two weeks after injection (Ahn 2000).
What is new
- A temporal lift that also repositions the muscle around the eye improved the whole area around the eye on patient questionnaires at one year (Pascali 2025).
- The same operation softened crow's feet, and the change held for two years (Pascali 2026).
What is still unknown
- How long the gliding lift lasts: its studies are short, retrospective and mostly subjective (Şibar 2024).
- Results in men and in older patients: most series are almost entirely women, some with an average age under 40 (Rohrich 2019, Şirinoglu 2025).
Key papers
- Liebman 1982: where the forehead nerve runs in the temple and how to avoid it.
- Ahn 2000: toxin can raise the outer brow without surgery.
- Zandi 2018: randomized comparison with an internal brow stitch.
- Viterbo 2019: first description of the gliding brow lift.
- Rohrich 2019: ten years of endoscopic temporal brow lifts.
- Orra 2025: measured brow position over a year after the gliding lift.
- Şirinoglu 2025: the temporal facelift and its nerve weakness rate.
- Chen 2026: twenty years of temporal lifts without permanent nerve injury.