Despite surgeon's concerns, the world's first face transplant recipient is using her new lips to start smoking again. Doctors fear it could interfere with her healing and raise the risk of tissue rejection. At the same time, however, the procedure is gaining more and more support worldwide in its aftermath.

The woman's French surgeons made their first scientific presentation on the partial face transplant at a medical conference in the U.S. this week.

American surgeons are reportedly growing more comfortable with the controversial decision to try the operation, hoping to offer such transplants to more patients themselves.

The 38-year-old unidentified Frenchwoman received a new nose, chin and lips from a brain-dead donor after being mauled by her dog last spring.

The woman suffered a tissue-rejection episode last month, and doctors fear her smoking will impair circulation to tissues and raise the risk of rejection.

According to the Associated Press, American doctors have stopped debating whether the French operation was ethical or wise, shifting the focus on making such transplants as safe and widely available as possible.