Indications A painful mandibular condition or its treatment, such as Fracture (of mandibular bone, alveolar ridge, teeth) Dental caries Dry socket Dental abscess (only if the abscess is distant from the nerve block site) Laceration (mucosa, lower lip, skin of chin) * * A nerve block may be preferred to local anesthetic infiltration when accurate approximation of wound edges is important (eg, skin or lip repair), because a nerve block does not distort the tissue as does local infiltration.