The South Philly Summer Smile Guide: What Water Ice, Soft Pretzels, and the Corner Store Are Doing to Your Kids’ Teeth

Summer in South Philadelphia has a specific soundtrack, a specific smell, and a specific snack rotation that doesn’t exist anywhere else on earth. The Rita’s cup at the end of the block. The soft pretzel from the cart outside the rec center. The soda from the corner store on the way home from swim practice at Mifflin. The cheesesteak after a Phillies game. The water ice — and it is water ice, not Italian ice, not a slushie, water ice — that appears in a child’s hand approximately 40 minutes after any outdoor activity in July or August.

South Philadelphia summers are one of the best things about growing up here. They are also, from a dental perspective, a sustained multi-week event that requires some explanation and a few easy habits to navigate without arriving at September with a collection of new cavities.

The Pediatric Dental Team has been Making Philly Kids Smile from 2010 South Juniper Street for over 30 years. Our board-certified pediatric dentists — including Dr. Jackie, who trained at Temple University Hospital’s Pediatric Dental specialty program and went rollerblading on the Schuylkill just last Saturday — grew up around here. We know the snacks. Here is what the snacks are doing, and what you can do about it.

Water Ice: The Beloved Summer Staple With a pH Problem

Rita’s Water Ice and the neighborhood stands that have been selling it since before most current parents were born offer something genuinely joyful. They also offer a product that is typically very high in sugar and quite acidic — the cherry and mango flavors that define a South Philly summer are made with citric acid, which has a pH around 2.2, lower than vinegar.

The dental concern isn’t that water ice is consumed. It’s the consumption pattern that makes it risky: a child walking home from Mifflin Square, working through a cup of lemon water ice over 20 minutes of August heat, is bathing their teeth in prolonged acid and sugar contact that’s more corrosive than eating a piece of birthday cake at a party would be. Duration of exposure matters as much as quantity.

The one-minute fix: rinse with water when the cup is finished. Water neutralizes acid and dilutes residual sugar before the salivary system can do it on its own. This habit — so simple it sounds like it can’t matter — actually reduces the cavity risk of a water ice significantly. Teach it early and it becomes automatic.

Soft Pretzels: Sneakier Than You’d Think

The soft pretzel is practically a character in South Philadelphia’s origin story. They’re sold in front of schools, outside Wawa, at the park, from the shopping cart on the corner. They’re inexpensive, they’re filling, they’re a food group.

They’re also soft, starchy, and highly adhesive. Cooked starch converts to simple sugars in the mouth almost immediately through salivary amylase, and the soft, chewy texture of a fresh pretzel presses the dough into the grooves and crevices of the back molars — exactly where cavity bacteria thrive. The pretzel that gets stuck in a second grader’s molar at 3 p.m. is providing a sugar source for cavity-causing bacteria through dinner if it isn’t rinsed or brushed away.

This isn’t a reason to ban soft pretzels from South Philly — that’s not a proposal anyone will accept or enforce. It is a reason to make sure kids rinse or drink water after one, and a reason that back molars deserve specific attention with the toothbrush at the end of the day.

Soda and the Corner Store

The corner store on the way home is an institution of South Philadelphia childhood. The contents of the cold case — sodas, sports drinks, fruit punches, iced teas — are a daily summer ritual for many of the kids we see at our Juniper Street office. Every one of these beverages is acidic, and several are both acidic and high in sugar.

Sports drinks deserve specific mention because parents often assume they’re a healthier option than soda. From a dental perspective, they’re often comparable or worse: many sports drinks have a lower pH than cola and significant sugar content, packaged in a context that suggests athletic benefit. The child sipping a Gatorade over two hours of outdoor play is getting the same prolonged acid exposure as the child with a soda — plus the perception that it’s a health choice.

Water is the dental team’s pick for summer hydration. When water isn’t going to happen, limiting the frequency and duration of acidic and sugary drink exposure matters more than eliminating them entirely.

The Back-to-School August Checkup Is the Most Important One

Everything described above — the water ice, the pretzels, the corner store trips, the cheesesteaks, the general sugar and acid accumulation of a South Philly summer — means that August is the best possible time for a dental checkup before school starts. Any cavities that started developing in June have had two months to grow. Sealants that weren’t in place before summer could have been protecting those molars. A professional cleaning removes the calculus that nobody’s home brushing routine can touch.

The back-to-school dental appointment at The Pediatric Dental Team is the reset after summer. It catches what the summer did, prevents the next stage, and sends South Philadelphia kids back to their classrooms with a clean bill of dental health.

Dr. Jackie, Dr. Maetal, and our full board-certified pediatric dental team have completed two years of specialized training beyond dental school specifically in caring for children’s smiles — from the first baby tooth to the last high school year. We’ve seen a lot of South Philly summers reflected in kids’ teeth. We know what to look for, and we know how to talk to kids about it in a way that sticks.

Schedule Your Back-to-School Appointment at The Pediatric Dental Team

The Pediatric Dental Team is located at 2010 South Juniper Street in Philadelphia. We serve families throughout South Philadelphia and surrounding neighborhoods and welcome patients from infancy through age 18. Contact us today to schedule your child’s August appointment — before the school year makes getting one an afterthought. And keep enjoying the water ice. Rinse afterward. Come see us. That’s the whole plan.

Medically reviewed by Jacqueline Ann Fillinger, D.M.D. on August 18, 2026