The Board has determined that a remand is necessary due to the inadequacy of the VA examination conducted in April 2023, which did not include a dental specialist. The Veteran's claim for service connection for his claimed dental condition, including gum disease, will be remanded for further development.
The deciding factor: The VA examiner was not qualified to provide a dental opinion and thus an inadequate examination has been identified.
- Claimed conditions
- gum disease
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- February 2, 2026
- Citation
- A26009341
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 A26009341.
What this means for you
A remand is not a loss. The Board sent the case back for more development — often a new exam or missing records — before making a final decision. Many remands later end in a grant, and the decision spells out exactly what the Board wanted to see.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the claims for diabetes, gum disease, hypertension, orthopedic foot disorder, left shoulder disorder, right shoulder disorder, hepatitis C, skin disorder of the feet (claimed as trench foot), and an acquired psychiatric disorder (claimed as depression and anxiety) due to errors in duty to assist.
- Denied
The Veteran's claim for service connection for a dental disability, including gum disease and loss of teeth, is denied as there is no evidence of in-service trauma or bone disease resulting in compensable dental disability.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the Veteran's claims for service connection due to incomplete development of his records and failure to provide adequate notice and examination.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has dismissed the appeal regarding service connection for teeth grinding due to procedural issues. Service connection is granted for bilateral hearing loss, but the claim must be remanded as there are missing records and the Veteran needs to provide authorization for VA to obtain relevant private dental treatment records.
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