A team of doctors in the US has have performed, which is being described as the most extensive face transplant treatment ever on a man, who has been given a new face, teeth, tongue and jaw.

37-years-old, Richard Lee Norris has been using a mask from the last 15 years to hide injuries that he received from a gun accident. He has undergone several life-saving and reconstructive surgeries but none of them were enough to convince him so as to make him conformable returning to the mainstream society.

The operation was performed at the University of Maryland's Medical Centre and it took about 36 hours to complete. His new face came from an anonymous donor. Doctors have said that Mr. Norris is recovering much faster than expected.

The latest surgery was performed after 10 years of research funded by the Department of Defence's Office of Naval Research and will now act as a model for helping war veterans, who revived injuries from explosives in Afghanistan.

Surgeons say that they can now start working on patients who received wounds in military opearaions in Iraq and Afghanistan.