A story about excessive self-confidence

When overconfidence costs too much

Once upon a time there lived a young man. In childhood, he was not taught to take proper care of his teeth, so he had quite a few dental problems.

And among them there was one «sleeping» issue. At some point, his root canals had not been fully treated, and there had been inflammation at the root for many years. Small. It did not bother him. His body kept it under control.

That is the backstory.

And now the story itself.

The young man was interested in science, and immunology inspired him especially. Macrophages, T-lymphocytes, B-lymphocytes, T-B interaction. Fascinating stuff.

And then one day he got a toothache. Not in the tooth with the old inflammation. In another one. But on the same side.

So the young man came to his doctor. And the doctor said:

• It needs to be depulped.

And the young man replied:

• No, I do not want to. I do not have many living teeth left. I will get rid of the infection in it with phagocytes.

The doctor was a little surprised, but decided not to argue. If he knew such smart words, maybe he really could deal with it that way.

For those who do not know, phagocytes are immune cells. They «eat» harmful bacteria and viruses that manage to get inside our body. And after the phagocytes destroy all the invaders, we recover.

The number of phagocytes is limited, and they are distributed more or less evenly throughout the body.

So while the young man was trying to phagocytize the pain in that tooth, his old inflammation - which, let us recall, was not far from the new one - flared up badly. And all because the «command» of the immune system had to redirect immune cells to fight the new inflammation. There simply were not enough immune cells for two battle zones.

The young man came back to the doctor and started blaming himself. Like, oh, why did I not listen to you? I should have agreed to depulpation when you told me to.

The doctor smiled.

• Sit down, - she said, - in the chair. Open your mouth. We are going to treat it.

The young man sat down, opened his mouth - and the tooth with the old inflammation was already gone.

It had to be removed urgently, because that inflammation could no longer be treated.

That is how excessive confidence in the power of his own immune system cost the young man his tooth.

The moral?

Study your body for general development, but do not forget to listen to doctors.