When you suffer an injury, you may immediately think that going to the emergency room is the best option. However, this may not always be the case because going to the emergency room can involve you waiting many hours before being treated. Luckily, there are urgent care centers that are capable of addressing many of the more routine emergencies that people may experience. In particular, the following two problems can often be addressed by these facilities. 

Stitches

A deep cut is a common injury that can be rather shocking to get because there may be heavy bleeding and visible bone or fat tissue. While the emergency room will be able to stitch your cut together, this will involve a lengthy wait and it will likely be more expensive than going to an urgent care center. 

Fortunately, you can avoid much of this hassle because an urgent care center will be able to provide stitches for your wounds. If you already received your stitches from a hospital, you should be relieved to know that you will not have to return to the same doctor to get them removed. Rather, any urgent care center will be able to quickly remove these stitches. 

Sprains

A sprained ankle can be a remarkably painful and debilitating injury to suffer. In addition to being unable to walk, you may face a lengthy recovery because joint injuries can be slow to heal. Following a severe sprain, it is common for people to go to a hospital for treatment. They may do this because they assume only the hospital will be able to take an x-ray. An x-ray is a valuable tool in verifying that the injury is a sprain rather than a break because the symptoms of these two injuries can be remarkably similar. 

Fortunately, this is not the case because many urgent care centers are able to provide x-ray services to their patients. In instances where the sprain is particularly severe, the doctors at these facilities will be able to provide you with a brace to support the joint while it heals.

Going to the emergency room can be an unpleasant experience for a variety of reasons. However, many people do not realize that there are many injuries that can be treated by doctors at urgent care centers. Knowing that sprains and stitches can be treated by professionals at urgent care centers, like 24 Hour Urgent Care of the Desert, will help ensure that you get the fastest treatment possible.