The veteran's service-connected bilateral hearing loss is manifested by no more than Level III hearing acuity in the right ear and no more than Level III hearing acuity in the left ear, which does not warrant a compensable disability evaluation.
The deciding factor: The veteran's average puretone hearing loss was 54 decibels with speech discrimination scores of 92% in the right ear and 88% in the left ear, resulting in Roman numeral designations of I for the right ear and II for the left ear. Applying Table VII, this equates to a noncompensable disability evaluation.
- Claimed conditions
- bilateral hearing loss
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- 0%
- Decision date
- May 13, 2008
- Citation
- 0815729
What this means for you
A denial is a starting point, not the end of the road. You can see why this claim fell short — and, if you are still inside the one-year window, the appeal lanes that may remain open to you.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
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- Granted
The Board granted service connection for bilateral hearing loss, finding it at least as likely as not related to the Veteran's in-service noise exposure.
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