Paris ? The French woman who received the world’s first partial face transplant has complete feeling in the new tissue five months after the operation, she told a Sunday newspaper.

Isabelle Dinoire, 38, also told the newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche that the hardest part of her recovery appears to be getting to know herself again.

She takes out old photos and, shocked at the difference between her former face and her new one, tells herself that she simply has aged, she said.

Dinoire said her speech has improved as she has gained more facial mobility.

Dinoire, a mother of two, lost much of her face when she was mauled by her pet Labrador.

It took 15 hours for doctors to replace the gaping hole in her face with a donor transplant that included a new nose, mouth and chin.