“I dedicated my career to the care and treatment of the pain patient.”
From Brooklyn to the Jersey Shore
“My humble beginnings started in Brooklyn — a place with a great sense of neighborhood, where you knew who your neighbors were and city blocks became an integral part of families. The people who lived there took care of one another and gave back to the community. They worked for the good of their family, and their bodies suffered for it. It was through their suffering I saw my future in medicine.”
Coming from a working-class family, Dr. Coccaro learned early that hard work, diligence and discipline put any dream within reach, and he pursued his medical education at St. George’s University School of Medicine. His Brooklyn roots followed him to New Jersey, where he found that same sense of community.
Training
- St. George’s University School of MedicineDoctor of Medicine
- Monmouth Medical Center — General SurgeryThree intensive years of surgical training with unique insight into trauma and neurosurgical patients, where his technical skills were finely honed.
- Saint Barnabas Medical Center, Livingston — Anesthesia & Pain MedicineDeveloped a passion for interventional pain medicine and pediatric regional anesthesia, performing thousands of ultrasound- and fluoroscopy-guided procedures.
- Community Medical Center, Toms RiverPracticed as a board-certified anesthesiologist serving the Toms River community.
- Precision Pain Management, LLCMinimally invasive spine procedures and regenerative medicine — most performed in under 45 minutes, with patients back to normal activities within days.
His philosophy
Dr. Coccaro’s approach to interventional pain management is simple and pragmatic: direct and precise, isolating and treating one pain source — one pain generator — at a time. He avoids dogmatic thinking like an automatic “series of three” injections when the first showed no promise of relief.
Listening to the patient is the essential beginning of every visit. A treatment plan follows only after a detailed history, a directed physical exam, and a review of all imaging — X-rays and MRI — with the patient. Consent is informed and agreed to.
Non-narcotic by default
Narcotics play a minor role in his practice. There are conditions where they have a place, but a non-narcotic regimen avoids tolerance, dependence, addiction, and narcotic side effects and complications.
Working with your other doctors
Dr. Coccaro insists on communicating with your primary care physician, so your pain care supports — rather than complicates — conditions like diabetes, hypertension and heart disease. His approach may help you avoid traditional open back surgery in favor of a less invasive technique, without long hospital stays or long-term complications.