The Board denied service connection for TMJ with bruxism as the evidence did not establish a current disability, and service connection was denied for sleep disorder and joint pain secondary to exposure to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune.,Service connection was granted for bilateral hearing loss but remanded due to insufficient readjudication of the claim.
The deciding factor: The VA medical opinions provided by the examiner were highly probative, as they considered the Veteran's entire medical history and provided clear conclusions with supporting rationale. The available medical literature did not support a relationship between sleep apnea, insomnia, joint pain, and exposure to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune.
- Claimed conditions
- TMJ with bruxism, Sleep disorder, to include sleep apnea and insomnia, Joint pain with functional loss
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 28, 2020
- Citation
- 20069686
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,569 · Granted: 26% (granted or partly granted, in the vetted decisions on this site)
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 20069686.
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Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Denied
The Veteran's claim for an earlier effective date for the award of service connection for TMJ with bruxism is denied. The Board found that there was no pending formal or informal claim prior to April 5, 2023, and thus the earliest possible effective date is April 5, 2023.
- Dismissed
The Board dismissed the appeal because the proposed reduction of the disability rating for TMJ with bruxism from 40 percent to 20 percent was not an appealable issue as it was not a final rating action.
- Dismissed
The Board has dismissed the appeals regarding service connection for GERD, sleep apnea, TMJ with bruxism, and an initial increased rating in excess of 50 percent for migraines due to the Veteran's death.
- Dismissed
The Veteran's claims for bilateral hearing loss and sleep disturbance have been dismissed due to untimely Notice of Disagreement (NOD) filings.,The Veteran's claim for service connection for migraines has been granted, as it is secondary to his service-connected PTSD.
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