The Gunshot Technique

Have you ever heard of the gunshot technique when talking about temple fillers? Not many people have. The temple region is an area where we lose bony mass and develop some hollowness as we age. This means we lose the support of the tail of the brow, making our brows drop, and when drawing on your brows, it may feel that the tail of the brow bends around a corner at the end. There is also less harmony between the forehead and the cheekbone; unfortunately, the temple’s hollowing can be an ageing sign for the face.

The temple region is not a common area where people request filler. It is normally a treatment recommended by the practitioner, largely because few people are aware that filler can be placed in this area with benefit to the face as a whole.

Benefits of temple fillers

• Making the facial shape more oval
• Supporting the tail of the brow to help lift the brow
• Smoothing the transition between the forehead and the cheekbone
• It may help with jowls in the lower half of the face

Many different techniques can be used to place filler in the temple region, and the most common technique is known as the gunshot technique. This technique uses a needle and enters the temple region at a 90-degree angle just above the tail of the eyebrow, hence why it has this name. The filler is then placed into this region and firmly massaged. With ultrasound being used more commonly in practice, we now know that important blood vessels may lie very close or even run directly where we are injecting when we use this technique, so I stopped using this particular technique in my practice unless I have an ultrasound of the area before the treatment.

Temple filler is still a treatment I do regularly and certainly one of my favourites; however, I use a cannula and treat it in a more superficial layer where important blood vessels are not located. The results are fantastic; I believe it is a safer technique when treating this area.

We must remember that no treatment, despite the technique used, is 100% safe, and there will always be risks involved, which your practitioner should discuss with you during your consultation.