Abnormal immune response to infection of the dental pulp. Report of a case

The following case illustrates an unusual response by the dental pulp to caries in an immunodeficient patient. The patient, a 14-year-old boy, suffered from thymic dysplasia and IgA deficiency. Deep dentinal caries produced relatively little destruction of the pulp and only a mild inflammatory response, in spite of the presence of a large number of bacteria in the pulp chamber. The patient's immunologic disorder was diagnosed as hereditary combined immunodeficiency of unknown type. However, it may have been a variant of Nezelof's syndrome.