Phase 1 & Early Orthodontic Treatment in Bountiful, UT

Reviewed by Dr. Andrew Welling, Board-Certified Orthodontist. Last updated June 2026.

Your child’s dentist mentioned early treatment, and now you have questions. Maybe a friend’s kid got an expander at seven and you’re wondering if your own child needs one too. Or maybe you typed “is Phase 1 orthodontics a scam” into Google last night after the appointment, because braces on a child who still loses teeth to the Tooth Fairy just feels like a lot.

That instinct to pause and ask questions is a good one. Plenty of kids who come in for an early evaluation don’t need treatment yet, and a trustworthy orthodontist will tell you that plainly.

At Bailey-Welling Orthodontics in Bountiful, that’s exactly what you’ll get from Dr. Welling: a straight answer about whether early treatment is the right call for your child, or whether the smarter move is simply to watch and wait. Davis County families have trusted us with this exact decision since 1971.

What Phase 1 Orthodontics Actually Is

Phase 1 is early, focused orthodontic treatment for children who still have a mix of baby teeth and adult teeth, usually somewhere around ages seven to ten. It’s sometimes called early treatment or interceptive treatment, and the goal is not a perfect, photo-ready smile right away.

The goal is narrower than that. Phase 1 addresses one or two specific developing problems while your child is still growing, so those problems don’t turn into bigger, more expensive ones later. Think of it as guiding the jaw and making room while the bones are still soft and cooperative, rather than waiting and forcing things into place once everything has hardened.

Most kids don’t need it. For the ones who do, the right timing can shorten or simplify whatever treatment comes later, and in some cases head off the need for tooth extractions or jaw surgery down the road. Phase 1 is one part of two-phase orthodontic treatment, and not every child who has a first phase will need a second one.

Why Age 7 Comes Up So Often

The American Association of Orthodontists recommends that every child have a first orthodontic evaluation by age seven. This is the part that trips parents up, because it sounds like the AAO is recommending braces at seven. It isn’t.

By age seven, enough adult teeth have come in and enough jaw growth has happened that an experienced orthodontist can spot developing problems early: a narrow upper jaw, a crossbite, severe crowding, a bite drifting in the wrong direction. Spotting those things early doesn’t mean treating them early. It means Dr. Welling can tell you whether to act now, keep an eye on it, or stop worrying about it entirely.

That last outcome is more common than you might think. A large share of these early evaluations end with Dr. Welling saying some version of “everything is developing the way it should, let’s just check in periodically.” There’s no charge to hear that, and there’s no obligation to do anything else.

Signs Your Child May Benefit From an Early Evaluation

Most parents don’t notice orthodontic problems in clinical terms. They notice everyday things that seem a little off. None of the signs below mean your child needs treatment, but they’re worth an evaluation while the jaw is still developing and a problem is easier to guide:

• Upper and lower teeth that don’t seem to meet or line up correctly
• Difficulty or discomfort chewing, or biting that looks uneven
• Front teeth that protrude, or upper teeth that sit behind the lower ones when biting
• Thumb-sucking that has continued past age four or five
• Persistent mouth breathing
• Severe crowding, or adult teeth coming in twisted or in unusual spots
• Baby teeth lost much earlier or much later than expected

These are the kinds of things Dr. Welling looks at during an early evaluation. Sometimes they point to an issue worth addressing during this growth window. Often they turn out to be a normal part of a child still in mixed dentition, with baby and adult teeth side by side. Either way, you leave knowing.

"Is Phase 1 a Scam?" Let's Talk About That Directly

You're protective of your child and protective of your wallet, and the internet is full of stories about families who felt pushed into expensive treatment by high-volume clinics that treat patients like line items. Those stories are real, and the skepticism they create is fair.

Here's how Bailey-Welling is different. Dr. Welling is a board-certified orthodontist, which is the highest credential in the specialty and one that not every orthodontist pursues. He earned his orthodontic certificate and a master's degree in orthodontics at the University of Iowa, and he grew up right here in Bountiful, where he got his own braces at this very practice as a kid.

He examines your child personally at the consultation. Not an assistant, not a treatment coordinator with a sales script. He looks at the teeth and bite himself, explains what he sees in plain language, and gives you an honest recommendation.

If your child needs Phase 1, he'll explain exactly why, what it will accomplish, and what it costs before you commit to anything. If your child doesn't need it, he'll say so. And if you want a second opinion after an evaluation somewhere else, that's a completely reasonable thing to want, and we welcome it. A practice that's confident in its recommendations has no reason to fear a second set of eyes.

What Phase 1 Treatment Looks Like at Bailey-Welling Orthodontics

Phase 1 is targeted, not comprehensive. When Dr. Welling does recommend it, one of the most common appliances is a palatal expander, often paired with a short course of braces to address a specific issue. The expander is a custom appliance that gently widens a narrow upper jaw over a matter of weeks, creating room for adult teeth and correcting crossbites before they become harder to fix. You can read more about how it works on our palatal expander page and our 3D expanders page. Kids tend to adapt to an expander remarkably fast, and the brief pressure after each adjustment passes quickly.

The specific conditions Phase 1 is most useful for include:

• A narrow upper jaw or crossbite, where the upper and lower teeth don't line up correctly
• Significant crowding, where there's clearly not enough room for the adult teeth coming in
• An open bite often tied to thumb-sucking or tongue-thrusting habits
• A protruding bite or deep bite with a skeletal component, where guiding jaw growth early makes a real difference
• Early loss of baby teeth, where holding space open prevents the remaining teeth from drifting

Every child is different, which is why none of this gets decided from a webpage. It gets decided after Dr. Welling actually looks at your child's mouth.

Why Timing Matters (When Treatment Is Needed)

For the children who do need early treatment, the reason timing matters comes down to one thing: some problems are far easier to correct while the jaw is still growing. Here is what the growth window changes.

None of this means every child should start now. It means that for the specific problems that depend on growth, waiting past the window can turn a simple fix into a big one. An exam is what tells us which kind of problem your child has, if any.

Which Kids Usually Don't Need Phase 1

Just as important as knowing who benefits is knowing who can wait, because most children fall into this group. Early treatment usually isn't the right call when a child has mild crowding that can be handled later, a minor bite issue with no skeletal component, or simply teeth that look a little crooked while everything is still developing normally. Crooked baby teeth on their own are rarely a reason to start treatment.

In these cases, the smarter, less expensive path is to do nothing yet and watch. Our 7 & Up Kids Club exists for exactly this: regular check-ins so that if a problem does start to develop, you catch it at the right moment, and if it never does, you haven't spent years chasing a treatment your child didn't need. Doing less, when less is the right answer, is part of honest orthodontic care.

Treating Now vs. Waiting: A Quick Way to Think About It

The real decision parents face isn't "braces or no braces." It's "treat now, or wait and watch." Here's the honest version of how that call gets made:

Only an exam tells you which column your child is in, and that's the whole point of the evaluation. Dr. Welling will put your child in the honest column, not the profitable one.

What Happens After Phase 1: The Resting Period

This is the part a lot of practices gloss over, so let's be upfront. Phase 1 doesn't usually replace later treatment. After the early appliance does its job, your child enters a resting period while the rest of the permanent teeth come in. Many children will still need a Phase 2 round of braces or aligners in their teen years to finish the alignment.

So why do Phase 1 at all? Because the early work handles the hard, growth-dependent problems while the window is open, which often makes that later phase shorter and simpler than it would have been otherwise. A skeletal issue that's simple to guide at age eight can become a much bigger project, sometimes a surgical one, if it waits until growth is finished.

During the resting period, Dr. Welling keeps an eye on your child's bite at regular intervals, so Phase 2 starts at exactly the right moment. Not too early, not too late. You aren't paying for a holding pattern, and you aren't left guessing about timing. When the time comes, you can read more about orthodontics for teens and what that next phase involves.

Our 7 & Up Kids Club

This is one of the things that sets the practice apart, so it deserves its own heading. Whether your child is being watched before any treatment or resting between phases, our 7 & Up Kids Club provides periodic monitoring of jaw development and erupting teeth.

Here's why that matters. With orthodontics, timing is often everything. Act too early and you treat a problem that might have resolved on its own. Act too late and you miss the growth window that made early intervention worthwhile in the first place. Regular monitoring means treatment, if it's ever needed, begins at the right moment and not a visit sooner. Many children stay in this program for years and never need a single appliance, and that's a perfectly good outcome.

What Phase 1 Costs in Bountiful

Because Phase 1 is focused and time-limited rather than a full course of comprehensive treatment, it typically costs less than full braces would. The exact figure depends on which appliance your child needs and how involved the correction is, which is why we give you a real number at the consultation rather than a vague estimate online.

Insurance often covers a portion of orthodontic treatment for children, and we go over your specific benefits with you at the free consultation so there are no surprises. You'll see a clear breakdown of costs: what treatment will run, what insurance covers, and what flexible, interest-free payment options are available through our financing plans. You'll know the full picture before you decide anything. For a wider look at orthodontic pricing, our guide to braces costs in Bountiful walks through the ranges.

What to Expect at Your Child's Phase 1 Consultation

The first visit is free, takes about an hour, and is built to answer your questions, not push you into anything. Here's how it goes:

• Your family is greeted by name at the front desk. Kids tend to relax quickly once they see the office is more welcoming than clinical.
• We take X-rays and photos to evaluate your child's teeth, bite, and jaw development.
• Dr. Welling personally examines your child. This is the orthodontist himself, not an assistant or a coordinator, looking at the teeth and bite and how everything is developing.
• He explains what he sees in plain language and gives you a clear recommendation: early treatment now, a spot in the 7 & Up Kids Club for monitoring, or simply no action needed yet.
• If treatment makes sense, you get a clear breakdown of costs before you commit to anything, and you can start the same day if you're ready.

You can see what your first visit involves in more detail, but the short version is that you'll leave understanding exactly where your child stands.

Common Childhood Bite Problems We Look For

An early evaluation covers more than crowded front teeth. During your child's exam, Dr. Welling checks for the full range of developing issues: crossbites, underbites, overbites and deep bites, open bites, crowding, spacing and gaps, teeth coming in out of position, and differences in how the upper and lower jaws are growing.

He also screens for something a lot of orthodontists skip: how your child breathes. Persistent mouth breathing and a narrow upper jaw can affect sleep, focus, and the way the face and bite develop, which is why airway-focused evaluation is built into how we look at growing kids. Most of these findings turn out to be normal variation. When one of them isn't, catching it during the growth window is exactly what makes early treatment worth doing.

What You Can Expect From Us

This is a big decision, and we don't treat it like a small one. When you bring your child in, you're handing us someone who matters to you more than anything, and we hold that carefully. Dr. Welling sat in this same practice as a nervous kid getting his own braces, and he's a father of three himself, so he reads a worried seven-year-old fast and knows how to put one at ease. We explain things to your child in words they actually understand, we keep the visit unhurried, and we look after your child the way we'd want someone looking after our own.

We make the parent's part easier, too. You don't have to become an expert in growth windows or lie awake wondering whether you're missing the right moment to act. That's our job, not yours. We watch the timing for you through our 7 & Up Kids Club, we walk you through insurance and costs at the free consultation so you're not decoding it alone, and we tell you plainly what to do next and what to skip. You get to leave knowing the plan, knowing the cost, and knowing your child is in steady hands. Parents tell us that's the part that lets them stop second-guessing and rest easy.

Why Davis County Families Choose Bailey-Welling Orthodontics

Choosing who guides your child's care is a bigger decision than choosing where to get teeth straightened. You want someone you trust, and you want an experience that doesn't feel like a factory.

Bailey-Welling has been part of Davis County since 1971, which is more than fifty years of caring for local families, many of them now bringing in the third generation. Dr. Welling grew up in Bountiful and had his own orthodontic treatment at this practice as a child, so he understands what it's like to sit in the chair as a nervous kid. He and Dr. Rett both completed full orthodontic residencies, and the practice has earned 530+ combined five-star Google reviews across our two Davis County offices, along with a Standard Examiner Best of 2022 award.

What families tell us they remember, though, isn't the credentials. It's the feel of the place: a team that's kind and welcoming, an office that makes a first visit comfortable instead of intimidating, and clear answers instead of a sales pitch. You can read what local families say on our testimonials page. Our Bountiful office sits on Pages Lane with easy access from I-15, which is part of why families from North Salt Lake, Woods Cross, West Bountiful, and Centerville make the short drive for their children's care.

Visit Bailey-Welling Orthodontics

Phase 1 evaluations for children happen at our Bountiful office, conveniently located on Pages Lane. Families come to us for early evaluations from across Davis County, including Bountiful, North Salt Lake, Woods Cross, West Bountiful, and Centerville.

The first step is simple and free: a thorough exam with Dr. Welling, a clear explanation of what he finds, and an honest recommendation about whether early treatment makes sense for your child. No sales pitch, no obligation.