NSW Dentist | Issue 4 2026 |

As it grows exponentially here and overseas, Australian-owned company Race Dental has been a long-time supporter of the Filling the Gap dental charity.

For Brad Race, travelling to remote areas has opened his eyes to how tough it is for people without direct access to oral health services.

It’s one of the reasons why the Race Dental CEO and his company have been so generous to the FTG dental charity over so many years.“When you see how difficult and how confronting some of that is in remote areas and how people’s lives are because of the state of their dentition, it just feels good to be able to make a difference,” Mr Race said.

“The dental industry has been very good to my family for 90 years now. For us, we live reasonably good lives and it feels good to be able to put a little bit back.

“Part of some of the work that we do is for remote patients where we do dentures in remote communities and that could be anywhere from Tasmania to Torres Strait to Broken Hill and Bourke.”

Supporting charity in Australia and overseas

In the 2025-26 financial year, FTG provided 1,114 appointments and some $414,055 in volunteer dental treatment showing the breadth and scale of its impact.
When the charity needs help, Race Dental have been there to assist. The company provides dentures at no cost whenever needed and also crown and bridge work, among other assistance. “Whatever the patients require,” Mr Race said.

Race Dental supports other charities including a charity in Queensland providing assistance for domestic violence victims and a charity in Wellington, New Zealand. But it’s FTG that holds a special place.

“It’s my favourite because it’s the one that is perfectly named Filling the Gap because these people are falling through the gap and you can you see the outcome of some of the people that we’ve helped along the way,” Mr Race said.

“It’s absolutely life changing for these people. For whatever reason, they just miss being able to access what they need to in order to turn their life around. “It’s the impact that it makes which is significant.”

A business success story

Race Dental is a third-generation family dental manufacturing business that has experienced continual growth.Its origins date back to 1936 when Mr Race’s grandfather returned from World War 1. He came back to Australia and started the dental lab in Macquarie Street in the city. He later served in World War II as a regimental sergeant major in the 2nd 4th field ambulance.

Family members thought he’d actually been killed in battle but he came home and resurrected the Race Dental business. He died early in 1974 from war injuries sustained earlier in life. Mr Race’s father took over the business around that time, aged about 26.

He managed to keep the business going, and then his brother came on board a little later as well. They were both dental technicians then both became prosthetists in 1976.  

Mr Race’s dad and uncle ran the business up until around 1992 when he started looking at why third generation family businesses fail. He joined the family business and started doing research into what could be improved.

He bought his uncle out in 1992 and then brought in his two brothers and his parents which sparked aggressive growth of the business. Mr Race bought the business in early 2000 aged in his late 20s.

The evolution of the company

As the years progressed, the company made a series of astute decisions to shape Race Dental as we know it today “which is a highly automated, highly organised and highly digitised business,” Mr Race adds.

“Changing the business from an art to a science was probably the biggest step. Even in our business today, we have a wall down the middle. We have all the artisans on one side because we still need to get that artistic component to finish the work,” he said.

“Then we have at all the engineering and 3D printers and mills and everything on the other side, and never the two shall meet! So that was a long, hard learning curve.”

Fast forward to now and Race Dental is a major player in the dental profession. There are over 100 staff employed in locations here and internationally.

The Sydney operations at Castle Hill are the main base for the company with 60-70 staff, with additional operations in New Zealand, Singapore and Malaysia. The company export out of Australia to other countries, including Asian countries.

The Race Academy

The Race Academy has been educating the profession for many years, spearheaded by the younger brother of the Race family, Matt Race, who is a familiar face on the educational arm of this business.

The Academy has provided education (including webinars) for thousands of dentists throughout Australia.

“Matt is a great lecturer, very entertaining,” Mr Race said.

“I still go and watch some of the lectures because he comes up with something new every time. He’s a wealth of knowledge.”

NSW Health OHFFSS denture voucher scheme

In a new scheme, ADA NSW members can access discounted denture services for eligible patients under the NSW Health Oral Health Fee For Service Scheme (OHFFSS) prosthetic voucher scheme.

This enables private practitioners to treat voucher patients while accessing Race Dental’s prosthetic solutions at pricing aligned to OHFFSS fees and at the same rate as Race Dental offers Government public dentistry.

By participating, members can support patients on public dental waiting lists while maintaining sustainable treatment delivery within their own practice.

Race Dental became involved for different reasons. “One is governments are a huge customer of the company and we do a lot of government contracts in different states,” Mr Race said.

“The wait list for the state in New South Wales still sits at around 80,000. If we can assist to get some dentists to see some of these patients, and some people dig deep, and start to help out a little bit, then we can help some of the people that actually need this sort of work in the broader community as well.”

Emerging technology

A major trend in the profession is the number of patients that are going overseas in search of cheaper dentistry to destinations such as Thailand. It is something Brad Race has seen firsthand.

“The volume is staggering,” Mr Race said. “One practice I looked at was doing 1,500 crowns a week from Australian patients. That’s significant.”

“I think it’s about being aware that the patient doesn’t know all the pitfalls and that a lot of work is getting done over there, a lot more than I’d like to think.”

Race Dental is staying ahead of the curve and embracing new technologies including using the latest 3D printers on the market. Some of the newer printers can print multiple different colors or materials in one run (but can be expensive). Greater efficiency will come.

“It’s about trying to really figure out how many digital dentures that we’re doing and being able to do a denture in two or three visits, instead of six or seven,” Mr Race said.

“That capability is absolutely there,” he said. It’s about: how do I do it quicker, smarter, better and cheaper from a manufacturing perspective?”

“That’s why I think labs, dentists, supply companies, the whole industry needs to stick together to promote Australian-made lab work with Australian-made dentistry and really show a point of difference to the patient as to why it’s better and safer and more predictable.”