Before 2005, surgeries to improve facial disfigurement relied on skin grafts from patients or cadavers. Now face transplants are becoming more common that can include not only the skin, but jaw bones and teeth.
On March 19, Richard Lee Norris, 37, became the world's 23rd facial transplant recipient. A gun accident in 1997 left Norris lipless and noseless. After 36 hours of surgery, he received a face from the hair line to the neck plus upper and lower jaws. A week into his recovery, Norris started to shave and brush his teeth.
Transplant recipients face the risk of immune rejection and must remain on immune-system suppressing drugs for the rest of their lives. The surgery is able to help people disfigured by accidents, diseases or attacks regain some of their old self, according to reports. Here are some before and after pictures of people who have received either full or partial face transplants.
Richard Lee Norris was injured in a gun accident that left him without his lips and nose and with very limited use of his mouth in 1997. Fifteen years later, he’s shaving and brushing his teeth again thanks to a full face transplant. Over 150 nurses and doctors worked for 36 hours to transplant a face, tongue and teeth onto Norris.
Norris is the first face transplant recipient to receive a jaw as well, which doctors say will help reduce the amount of immune-system repressing drugs needed.
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