Doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore announced Tuesday they completed last week what they are calling the “most extensive” face transplant ever conducted. The procedure was performed on Richard Lee Norris, a Virginia resident who was was severely disfigured in a 1997 gun accident that cost him much of his nose, lips and the use of his mouth.

The surgery, which took 36 hours to complete, gave Norris back teeth, a tongue and an upper and lower jaw, his doctors told the Associated Press. Norris’ operation was the most extensive face transplant since the procedure was first performed successfully in 2005 because of the tongue involvement and because of the depth of the incisions made.

WJLA has larger photos of Norris’ appearance before and after his shooting.

The first successful face transplant was completed in France in 2005 on Isabelle Dinoire, who was mauled by her pet labrador after she passed out from an overdose of sleeping pills. The first U.S. procedure was performed at the Cleveland Clinic in 2008.

The February 13 edition of The New Yorker contained a long, moving piece on the history of face transplants, centered around a patient named Dallas Wiens, whose face decomposed after a severe electrical burn and underwent years of procedures to re-acquire the abilities to speak, eat and walk.