Amrita Tripathi, New Delhi: Irish teenager Alan Doherty was born without a lower jaw. He's one of two people known to have the condition otofacial syndrome.

The 17-year-old is unable to breathe without assistance and cannot eat or speak without a tube.

But he can communicate, typing out messages on his keyboard attached to a computer that speaks for him.

"People are always staring at me from when I was small to today or yesterday, which I don't like, but I am used to it," said Doherty. It's something doctors at a New York hospital hope to change.

"We would like to think that spiritual inner being is acceptable, and it certainly is inwardly, but to a society that really focuses on physical appearance having a whole face and having a face that is not criticised or ostracised by other people is so important,” said plastic surgeon Dr Elliott Rose.

Dr Rose's team plans to use a piece of Doherty's hip bone as a replacement for his lower jaw in an operation planned for later this year.

In an operation on Monday, doctors moved the bone to his back, where it will be nourished and will gather nerves.

Doctors say that after multiple surgeries are complete next year, his face will appear normal, but there's only about a 30 per cent chance that he will learn to talk and eat with his new mouth.

But for Doherty’s family, an operation to give their son a regular face can't come too soon.

"It's something he's always dreamed about, having a more normal face, not have people staring at him, and looking as normal as he could,” said Alan's mother, Bernie Doherty.

But it's not cheap, charity organisations are still raising the money to pay for the surgery, which will cost more than $100,000.