I saw Dr. Marcia Ribeiro, in Pikesville, MD, from diagnosis in 2003, until 2010 when I had to move out of state. She is a very caring and compassionate person, as well as an knowledgable doctor. My pain is hard to treat, and she has been wonderful about trying regular meds, off-label meds, botox, nerve blocks, Cyberknife, and anything else.
Dr. Ribeiro specializes in facial pain. She is on top of the latest research, and goes all over the country for seminars in pain treatment. Her goal is to help her patients feel better, and she's willing to prescribe what is needed, and try other meds if it doesn't work.
Perhaps most importantly, she is willing to listen to patients, and discuss options. I would regularly go in with my own research, and if it was new to her, she was willing to research it herself. She is not only open to alternative options, she has a naturalist on staff.
Her webpage, www.mahinst.com , has this quote: "Individual treatment programs are then structured with input from the patient according to his/her needs and desires. Both the body and the mind must be taken into consideration for treatment to be effective."
Her insurance info has changed since I was a patient, but in my experience, she was very willing to work out payment issues.
If this gets much longer, no one will read it, so let me finish off with two brief stories:
When my cat died, I was a mess, and missed an appointment. Dr. Ribeiro, who has over 2,000 patients, called me fom home that night to see if I was ok, and skipped her lunch break the next day so I could come in.
When Dr. Ribeiro bought her own practice, she hired an answering service. They screwed up, and she missed a call from a patient . She fired them, and to this day has her personal cell phone and beeper numbers on her office voice mail.
--Jan