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Denied

The Veteran's claim for service connection for bilateral hearing loss is denied as there is no evidence of a current disability.,Service connection for sleep apnea is also denied, with the examiner finding that it is not related to military service and likely due to obesity. The Veteran does not meet the criteria for undiagnosed illness or medically unexplained chronic multisymptom illness.,The Veteran's claim for an initial compensable rating for allergic rhinitis is denied as there is no evidence of greater than 50 percent obstruction of the nasal passage on both sides, complete obstruction on one side, or nasal polyps.

The deciding factor: There is no current diagnosis of bilateral hearing loss that meets VA criteria.,The Veteran's sleep apnea was found to be a known clinical diagnosis with a specific etiology and not related to military service.,The Veteran does not meet the criteria for allergic rhinitis as defined by VA regulations.

Claimed conditions
bilateral hearing loss, sleep apnea, allergic rhinitis
How they argued it
Direct service connection
Exposure basis
None
Rating assigned
None in this decision
Decision date
July 12, 2018
Citation
18118130

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 18118130.

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