Summary of the new 2010 American Heart Association Guidelines for Basic Life Support (CPR)

Approximately every 5 years, American Heart Association (AHA) experts review emerging scientific evidence and recent clinical experiences and update the AHA guidelines for basic and advanced life support procedures for in-hospital and out-of-hospital victims of life-threatening cardiac events. This article summarizes many of the 2010 changes in those guidelines as they apply to dental healthcare providers (HCP). More detailed information will be available in the near future as these guidelines are fully implemented and instructional materials are released by the AHA. Until they are trained in future AHA or American Red Cross (ARC) basic or advanced cardiac life support (BLS, ACLS) courses in 2011, dentists, dental assistants, dental hygienists, and office staff should continue to rely on the training and information they received in their most recent basic (and/or advanced cardiac) life support training course.