Full face transplant patient says new face feels natural: What does his daughter say?

(CBS/AP) "Daddy, you're so handsome." That's what the country's newest face transplant recipient said his young daughter told him when she saw him after his operation.

PICTURES - Dallas Wiens' amazing face transplant

Sporting a goatee and dark sunglasses, Dallas Wiens (pronounced WEENS) joined surgeons Monday at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston in his first public appearance since the 15-hour procedure in March.

Wiens was blinded and his facial features burned away when he hit a power line while painting a church in November 2008. But he was upbeat about his new nose, lips, skin, muscle, and nerves - all from an anonymous donor.

"It feels natural," said the 25-year-old from Fort Worth, Texas.

Surgeons said the surgery did not restore Wiens' sight, and some nerves had been so badly damaged that he will probably have only partial sensation on his left cheek and the left side of his forehead.

In an Associated Press story and a YouTube video last fall, Wiens spoke poignantly about why he wanted a transplant and how he wanted to smile again and feel kisses from his daughter, Scarlette, who turns 4 next month. Face transplants give horribly disfigured people hope of an option other than "looking in the mirror and hating what they see," he said.

He told the AP that his daughter and his faith have kept him motivated.

The surgery was paid for by the Department of Defense, which gave the hospital a $3.4 million research grant for five transplants. It hopes to use findings from the procedure to help soldiers with severe facial wounds.

About a dozen face transplants have been done worldwide, in the U.S., France, Spain and China.