For all the dentists who own a dental practice, thankfully, very few things would create an existential threat to your business. One could be not taking steps to market your dental practice to attract new patients and that business then suffering a decline until its demise. Another might be your landlord suddenly deciding that they want the commercial building your dental practice leases for another purpose.
There is a third way in which your dental practice might be under threat: if a patient decides to start legal action against you. There can be many reasons they might do so such as treatment not working, an accident occurring while they are on your premises, or feeling discriminated against in some way.
Before going any further, we are not for one second suggesting that you or those working in your dental practice would ever act in a way to cause these to occur. However, not every legal case instigated is justified, and you would not be the first dentist who has been sued for nefarious reasons by a disgruntled patient who has more money than sense or morals.