Increasing Facial Attractiveness by Lateralizing the Auricle-Analyzing the Pan-Facial Effects of the Postauricular Injection Technique in Chinese Patient Populations.

[BACKGROUND] The postauricular injection technique is a needle-based technique that places soft tissue fillers behind the ears into the supra-periosteal plane of the mastoid process of the temporal bone. The resulting clinical effect pushes the auricles more laterally mimicking the inverse effects of a surgical otoplasty.

[OBJECTIVE] The purpose of this study is to investigate the aesthetic outcome of the postauricular injection technique by having the treatment results evaluated by several international, independent, and blinded reviewers.

[METHODS] 2D frontal before and after images of 30 Chinese patients (29 females, 1 male) with a mean age of 37.70 (9.4) years and a mean BMI of 19.56 (1.2) kg/m were collected, randomized to sequence and patient order, and sent out to 14 independent international raters who were not involved in the treatment planning or treatment process. The mean follow-up period for the picture-based rating was 2.73 (2.0) months whereas the average amount of product administered per facial side was 4.08 cc (1.7).

[RESULTS] This study revealed that the postauricular injection technique was evaluated to increase attractiveness, decrease un-attractiveness, and result in a younger facial appearance. Individual and detailed features like facial shape, facial fullness, temporal volume, midfacial volume, jawline contouring failed to reach statistical significance despite showing improvements.

[CONCLUSION] This study revealed that the postauricular injection technique is able to increase facial attractiveness, decrease facial un-attractiveness, and result in a younger facial appearance in a Chinese patient population. Individual and detailed features like facial shape, facial fullness, temporal volume, midfacial volume, and jawline contouring failed to reach statistical significance despite showing improvements. Level of Evidence IV This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .