The face, scalp, and temporal region
The face conveys our conscious and subconscious emotions and projects vulnerability in disfigurement. Functionally, the face encompasses the muscles that surround our eyes, nose and mouth, contributing to the sphincters and dilators that allow the fine motor control of our eyelids, nostrils and lips, respectively. The face forms the anterior part of the head medial to the ears and between the hairline superiorly and the chin inferiorly. It comprises everything that lies between what is visible anteriorly and laterally. The face consists of four recognisable tissue planes – skin, a subcutaneous layer of fibroadipose tissue (held responsible for some of the changes of the ageing face), the superficial muscular aponeurotic system and the parotidomasseteric fascia. The scalp forms the soft tissue envelope of the cranial vault. The triad it forms with the forehead anteriorly and the temporal regions laterally should be considered as a continuum rather than three separate entities.