A North Providence dental prosthetics maker has broken ground on a $3-million facility in Smithfield that owner Richard Napolitano said will be the largest dental lab in New England, with more than 100 workers, a lab technician school and training programs for dentists.
Precision Craft Dental Laboratory has been making custom dentures, crowns and bridges, and dental implants at a facility on Mineral Spring Avenue since 1972, when Napolitano opened the business with a partner, Joseph Lupoli.
Seifert Systems Invests in Energy Efficiency to Strengthen Operations
For manufacturers, energy is more than just another operating expense. It plays a critical role…
Learn More
After Lupoli’s death in 1992, Napolitano said, he decided to grow the company, taking it from a staff of 15, to the current 37, and sharply increasing sales. The lab now serves 700 dentists in New England, he said, including about 60 percent of the Rhode Island market.
Precision Craft makes all kinds of dental prosthetics, but it specializes in cosmetic dentistry and implants, which it has been perfecting since 1978. “It’s been really how we grew,” Napolitano said, “this high-end dentistry not many technicians have the expertise” to do.
And dental prosthetics is an industry with plenty more room to grow, he said. Not only does cosmetic dentistry continue to thrive, but as baby boomers get older, they need more and more bridges and dentures. In fact, in 1999, the American Dental Association predicted that dental work would increase by as much as 400 percent by 2010, he said.
So now, after “probably one of our best years,” Napolitano wants Precision Craft to get much bigger. He couldn’t do it at his current location, he said – the space wouldn’t accommodate an ergonomically correct design – so he looked elsewhere.
“We checked all over the state, and Smithfield welcomed us with open arms as far as tax benefits are concerned,” Napolitano said. The town offered the company a 10-year property tax stabilization plan, he said, and the location of the two-acre site, off Route 295, was perfect.
The new plant will be in Greystone Park, at 37 Thurber Blvd. It will be 15,000 square feet, compared with the current plant’s 6,000, and be built by French Design Builders, with a scheduled move-in date of August.
In a news release, Michael McMahon, executive director of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation, said the project is “noteworthy for the state,” because it will not only enable Precision Craft to expand, but it will also support work force development.
Dental technicians are in short supply, Napolitano said, especially ones with the technical expertise to use the laser equipment and CAD/CAM (computer-assisted design) gear.
Already about 30 percent of dental prosthetics in the United States are made in China, Mexico or other countries, he said, in part because of low domestic production capacity.
To build a work force for his new plant, Napolitano is setting up an apprenticeship school within the facility.
“We need high school graduates, and then from that point, we’ll teach them the vocation,” he said.
The company already has a job training partnership with the state that allows it to take apprentices for six months, with the state covering half their pay. Three workers are currently in training, and a fourth already graduated from the program.
In addition to the vocational programs, Precision Craft plans to offer specialized training sessions for dentists who want to develop their knowledge of cosmetic and implant dentistry.
“This is an incredible opportunity to stay in Rhode Island and create new jobs,” said Napolitano. “Not only will this move allow us to continue to be a driving force in dental technology, but it will help keep business in our state.”
