Is oxygen good or bad? . Of course, you need oxygen to breathe, but oxygen as a molecule is quite reactive and oxygen tends to attach itself to many different things and can cause damage.

A good example is that oxygen can attack the metal in cars and make them rust. Oxygen can attack butter that is left outside the fridge and make it go rancid. That’s why you cover up food in the fridge with plastic wrap to prevent the oxygen molecules from attacking it. 

The process in which oxygen attacks things is called oxidation.

When you have gum disease, your body’s own defense cells are producing oxygen radicals, because they want use them to attack bacteria. .

Your body also has an antioxidant system that can protect your own cells from these oxygen radicals.

If you have gum disease, you may have too many reactive oxygen molecules that are causing havoc. 

Your antioxidant status is low and you can boost it with antioxidants.

Reference: 

Wang Y, Andrukhov O, Rausch-Fan X. Oxidative Stress and Antioxidant System in Periodontitis. Front Physiol. 2017 Nov 13;8:910. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2017.00910. PMID: 29180965; PMCID: PMC5693842.