Our Dental ACLS course is fully compliant with the BC College of Oral Health Professionals (BCCOHP) and the latest 2025 ILCOR and Heart & Stroke guidelines. BCCOHP requires the dentist administering moderate sedation to hold current Advanced Cardiac Life Support certification, and requires that the course include a hands-on component — courses delivered entirely online are not acceptable. Our curriculum covers three distinct areas: core ACLS science and algorithms, dental sedation-specific emergency integration, and mandatory hands-on 'High-Performance Team' components. These multi-rescuer scenarios are designed to incorporate equitable care and cultural safety, ensuring that team-based emergency protocols are delivered with respect and without discrimination for all patients. This training is accomplished when we come to your office on a pre-determined date that works with your schedule.

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What Sets Us Apart:

• Contextual Scenarios: We practice where you work. From over-sedation and laryngospasm to unstable arrhythmias and cardiac arrest, we simulate emergencies in the dental operatory.

• Sedation-Specific ACLS: Reversal agents, capnography interpretation, local anaesthetic systemic toxicity (LAST), and airway rescue — not generic hospital ACLS.

• Streamlined Certification: Efficient, evidence-based learning that respects your professional time. We strip away the fluff and focus on rhythm recognition, airway management, drug therapy, and team leadership tailored to the sedation operatory.

• BCCOHP Standards: Fully aligned with current sedation and CE requirements.

• LCOR Driven: The latest science in resuscitation.

• Team-Centric: Training that recognizes the unique roles of LDAs, RNs, sedation assistants, and Dentists.  Don't just stay compliant. Stay ready.

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A course built in two tracks: ​

• BCCOHP places the ACLS requirement on the dentist. But it also requires that every member of the sedation team holds current BLS-HCP, participates in documented mock drills, and knows their assigned role during a rescue. A code in a dental operatory is won or lost by the whole room — so we train the whole room.

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Core Track — every member of the sedation team:​

• Dentists, Licensed Dental Assistants (LDAs), RNs, LPNs, sedation assistants and recovery supervisors. Five online modules, approximately 2.5 hours.

• *The System of Care · Recognizing the Deteriorating Sedation Patient · Airway Rescue Fundamentals · Monitoring, the Emergency Kit and the Defibrillator · Team Dynamics and Your Role in the Code*

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Provider Track — the dentist or sedation provider:

• Five further online modules, approximately 3.5 hours, taken after the Core Track.

• *ECG Rhythm Recognition · ACLS Pharmacology in the Dental Setting · The ACLS Algorithms · Sedation-Specific Emergencies · Leading the Code in the Operatory*

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• Both tracks converge on the same in-person day. Your team practises together — which is what turns the hands-on session into documented mock drill compliance for the entire office.​​​​

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Core ACLS Course Requirements for the BCCOHP:

 

For an ACLS course to be valid for BCCOHP registration and practice standards, it must meet the following criteria:

 

• Hands-on Component: Courses must have a physical, in-person skill assessment. Fully online courses are not acceptable for meeting clinical standards. This applies to both ACLS and PALS.

 

• Advanced Skills, Not Just CPR: The in-person assessment must go beyond high-quality CPR to include airway management with a bag-valve-mask and oxygen integration, rhythm recognition, and manual defibrillation — the skills that separate ACLS from BLS.

 

• Target Audience: The certification must be designed for the credentialed sedation provider. The dentist administering enteral or parenteral moderate sedation must hold current ACLS; for patients 12 years of age and under, a current PALS certificate is also required.

 

• Recognised Provider: The Standards require current certification in "ACLS or an appropriate equivalent as determined by the Sedation and General Anaesthetic Services Committee." Confirm your course is recognized before relying on it for registration.

 

• Recency: Certification is valid for no longer than 24 months. If your certificate is issued with a 1-year expiry, you must renew it annually to remain "current" — the shorter of the two intervals always governs.

 

• Continuing Education Value: Unlike BLS, ACLS counts toward the minimum six hours of sedation and anaesthesia continuing education required within your three-year CE cycle.

 

 

What you will receive: 

• An ACLS Provider Certificate valid for 2 yrs.

• Six (6) hours of continuing education that BCCOHP recognizes toward the sedation/anaesthesia CE requirement within your three-year cycle. (BLS courses do not qualify for this requirement — ACLS and PALS do.)

• A Dental ACLS Team Member certificate for every team member who completes the Core Track and the hands-on session.

• Confidence to lead your team through sedation emergencies, unstable arrhythmias, and cardiac arrest.

• The Dental ACLS course can be combined with Mock Code Drills (BCCOHP compliant for all levels of sedation), making compliance easier.

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Course Syllabus: Dental ACLS (Sedation Provider)​

 

I. Course Description

This course is a comprehensive, dental-specific advanced resuscitation program designed for dentists who administer or supervise minimal, moderate, or deep sedation, and for the sedation team members who support them. It adheres to the 2025 ILCOR Consensus and Heart and Stroke guidelines. The curriculum focuses on high-performance team dynamics, advanced airway management, rhythm recognition, and the pharmacology and management of medical emergencies unique to the sedation operatory, emphasizing hands-on competency and clinical integration.

 

II. Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Apply the ACLS systematic approach to a deteriorating sedation patient, from the primary assessment through post-arrest care.

• Recognize and manage respiratory depression, airway obstruction, and laryngospasm arising under enteral or parenteral sedation.

• Identify and treat the core ACLS rhythms: VF/pulseless VT, asystole/PEA, symptomatic bradycardia, and stable and unstable tachycardias.

• Administer and direct emergency pharmacology, including reversal agents (naloxone, flumazenil), epinephrine, atropine, and antiarrhythmics.

• Lead a resuscitation as team leader, assigning roles and using closed-loop communication in a confined operatory.

• Deliver emergency care that aligns with HPOA principles of equitable care and cultural safety.

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III. Core Curriculum (Modules)

• Resuscitation Science: The Six Links of the Chain of Survival (2025 update including the Recovery link).

• Advanced Airway Management: BVM with oxygen integration, oropharyngeal and nasopharyngeal adjuncts, supraglottic airway placement, and waveform capnography.

• Rhythm Recognition & Defibrillation: ECG interpretation, manual defibrillation and AED use, synchronized cardioversion, and transcutaneous pacing.

• Team Dynamics: ACLS team leader and team member roles, debriefing, and high-performance team metrics.

• Dental Sedation Integration

• Over-Sedation & Respiratory Arrest: Recognition, airway rescue, and reversal-agent protocols under IV and oral sedation.

• Laryngospasm & Difficult Airway: Stepwise management in the dental chair.

• Local Anaesthetic Systemic Toxicity (LAST): Recognition and lipid emulsion therapy.

• Anaphylaxis, Seizure, Hypoglycemia, Stroke and ACS: The written emergency plans BCCOHP requires every facility to hold.

• Emergency Kit & Drug Cart Review: Practical review of the BC dental office emergency kit and sedation drug cart.

• The Dental Chair Challenge: Running a full code in a clinical operatory.

• Documentation: Completing the resuscitation record ("Appendix R") required whenever a patient requires resuscitation.

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IV. Regulatory Alignment (BCCOHP QAP)

This course is specifically designed to meet the following professional requirements:

• Moderate Sedation: BCCOHP requires the dentist administering enteral or parenteral moderate sedation to hold current ACLS certification. For patients 12 years of age and under, a current PALS certificate is also required.

• Deep Sedation: Dentists who did not complete ACLS training as part of a postgraduate program must successfully complete an ACLS course.

• Hands-On Requirement: BCCOHP states that ACLS and PALS courses must include a hands-on component and that entirely online courses are not appropriate. This course includes in-person skills validation.

• Continuing Education: ACLS fulfils the sedation/anaesthesia CE requirement of no fewer than six hours during the three-year CE cycle. BLS does not.

• Standard 2.7 (Maintaining Competence): Provides evidence-based training to maintain and improve clinical skills, and may be logged under Component B (Professional Learning) in your annual QAP portal.

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V. Assessment & Validity

• Practical Evaluation: Successful demonstration of high-quality CPR, airway management, defibrillation, and team leadership in a megacode scenario via a physical skills checklist.

• Written Evaluation: Completion of a final written exam.

• Certification Period: Valid for 12 months from the date of completion. BCCOHP requires ACLS renewal every two years, or as recommended by the course provider, whichever is more frequent — the Heart & Stroke annual cycle satisfies both.

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Note to Students:

As per the Modernized Quality Assurance Program (launched April 1, 2026), students are encouraged to utilize this syllabus for their "learning reflection" and to keep a copy of their signed skills checklist for their personal records.

 

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Course Breakdown:

What's in the Online Modules?

Participants receive access to self-paced online modules and an ACLS provider manual that build the core science before the hands-on day.

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Online modules cover:

• ILCOR Guidelines: Science review and the 2025 update, including the sixth link — Recovery.

• BLS Foundations: High-quality CPR metrics and the rapid primary assessment (simultaneous breathing and pulse check in <10 seconds).

• The ACLS Systematic Approach: Primary and secondary assessment, and the H's and T's.

• ECG Rhythm Recognition: Sinus rhythms, bradycardias, blocks, narrow- and wide-complex tachycardias, VF/pulseless VT, asystole and PEA.

• ACLS Pharmacology: Epinephrine, amiodarone, lidocaine, atropine, adenosine, and sedation reversal agents.

• Airway Management: BVM technique with oxygen, airway adjuncts, supraglottic devices, and waveform capnography.

• ACS and Stroke: Recognition, initial management, and transport decisions from the dental office.

• Post-Cardiac Arrest Care: Stabilization and handover to EMS.

 What happens during the hands-on portion of the course?

• Overview of ACLS online components and review of the systematic approach.

• ACLS algorithm review.

• Hands-on Components Include:
  - CPR practice with the latest "qCPR" technology.
  - Airway management, including hands-on training with the Bag-Valve-Mask, oxygen integration, adjuncts and supraglottic airways.
  - Defibrillation, synchronized cardioversion, and transcutaneous pacing on a manual defibrillator.
  - Megacode: multi-rescuer scenarios with rotating team leader roles. The Dental ACLS course emphasizes "Team Dynamics".
  - Dental sedation-based scenarios: over-sedation, laryngospasm, LAST, anaphylaxis, and arrest in the chair.
   

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