Why are antibiotics important?

You don't technically need antibiotics if your immune system was strong enough to fight of an infection itself. Antibiotics help inhibit bacterial growth by interfering with its general proliferation, whether it be through reproduction or cell wall synthesis.

Often, antibiotics are there to aid your body in ridding itself of a bacterial infection faster. For the elderly or immunologically impaired, antibiotics weaken the bacteria enough for the body to clean up the mess.

One thing antibiotics cannot do is completely get rid of a bacteria infection by itself, the body will still do most of the work.