"I smile, but Without Showing My Teeth": The Lived Experience of Cleft, Lip, and Palate in Adults.

In retrospect, growing up with a unilateral CLP was found to have been an unquestioned part of the adult participants' childhood, a burden that they feared would, to some extent, also be passed to their own children. However, the CLP had not prevented them from achieving goals and satisfaction in life. The occurrence of persisting psychological, functional, and esthetic challenges in adults suggests the need for an individualized, lifelong, and multidisciplinary perspective on CLP follow-up.