If your child injures their ankle while playing at school, you may want to take them to a doctor to find out if the injury is serious. The question is: where do you go for treatment? In a situation like this, visiting a same day or immediate care center might be a better option than going to your pediatrician's office or to the emergency room, and here are three reasons why.

Immediate Help

On average, you will wait approximately 15 minutes to get in to see a doctor at an immediate care center. If the center is extremely busy at the time, you may have to wait as long as two hours though. According to CNN, the average wait time in an emergency room in 2009 was six hours. If you have a life-threatening condition, you might receive treatment right away, but a sprained ankle is not considered life-threatening.

The other option is visiting your regular doctor for help, but this can also be a problem if the office is currently closed, or if the office is already overbooked and doesn't have time to squeeze your child in.

They Can Treat It

One of the downsides of visiting a regular doctor for an ankle injury is that many clinics do not have x-ray equipment. They may take a look at the ankle, but they will not be able to diagnose or treat it without getting x-rays. This means that you will have to go somewhere else to get the x-rays. If you are sent to the hospital for x-rays, the hospital will send the results to your child's doctor, and you will have to bring the child back there to find out what the problem is.

Immediate care centers have x-ray machines, and they will be able to take the x-rays during your visit. This means that you will get a diagnosis and treatment plan for the injury all at one place, and this is much better than going two different places to get the answers you need.

It Might Be Cheaper

The final thing to consider is the costs. Visits to immediate care centers are always less expensive than visits to emergency rooms, no matter what medical issue you have. Choosing immediate care over your regular doctor's office might also be less expensive simply because you will only need to go one place for services.

As you think about your options, you might find that immediate care is the best choice for your child's injuries. You do not have to make an appointment to visit a center like this, and you will be able to get treatment while you are there. For more information, contact a clinic like Burnsville Family Physicians.