The Board denied the veteran's service connection claims for bilateral hearing loss and tinnitus, finding no evidence of a hearing loss disability during or within one year after discharge from service, and no credible evidence linking either condition to active service.
The deciding factor: The absence of evidence at discharge and initial findings of hearing loss many years post-service, combined with inconclusive test results and an opinion that identifying a nexus would be speculative, outweighed the private physician's opinion relating current hearing loss 'probably' to service. There was also no credible evidence linking tinnitus to active service.
- Claimed conditions
- Bilateral hearing loss, Tinnitus
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 7, 2009
- Citation
- 0900696
Veterans Law Judge
Judge attribution: 2025 complete; earlier years partial.
This is a plain-language summary generated by AI from a public Board of Veterans’ Appeals decision. It can contain errors — always verify against the original. Look up the original decision on VA.gov (opens in a new tab) using citation 0900696.
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Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for bilateral hearing loss and tinnitus, finding that the Veteran's current conditions are not related to his military service.
- Granted
The Veteran's claim for a low back disorder was reopened, and his claims for increased ratings of bilateral knee instability were granted. His hearing loss claim was denied.
- Denied
The Board denied the veteran's claims for a higher rating for PTSD and dismissed his appeals regarding increased ratings for tinnitus and a right hand disability due to lack of timely filing of Notice of Disagreement.
- Denied
The Board has denied the Veteran's claims for service connection for various conditions, including GAD, MDD, bruxism, migraines/headaches, tinnitus, hip pain, iliotibial band syndrome, and leg stress fractures. The evidence does not support current diagnoses of these conditions during the appeal period.
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