Citation Nr: 18152176
Decision Date: 11/21/18	Archive Date: 11/21/18

DOCKET NO. 18-36 230
DATE:	November 21, 2018
ORDER
Entitlement to service connection for bilateral hearing loss is granted.
FINDING OF FACT
The Veteran’s current bilateral hearing loss is related to his active service.  
CONCLUSION OF LAW
The criteria for service connection for bilateral hearing loss are met. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 1154, 5107 (2012); 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.303, 3.304, 3.385. (2018).
REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION
The Veteran had active duty service in the Navy from September 1959 to September 1963 and from December 1967 to April 1969. 
This case comes before the Board of Veteran’s Appeals (Board) on appeal from a December 2016 rating decision of a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional Office (RO).
Service connection may be granted for a disability resulting from disease or injury incurred in or aggravated by service. 38 U.S.C. § 1110; 38 C.F.R. § 3.303 (a). Service connection requires competent evidence showing: (1) the existence of a present disability; (2) in-service incurrence or aggravation of a disease or injury; and (3) a causal relationship between the present disability and the disease or injury incurred or aggravated during service. Shedden v. Principi, 381 F.3d 1163, 1167 (Fed. Cir. 2004); see also Caluza v. Brown, 7 Vet. App. 498 (1995).
Under 38 C.F.R. § 3.303 (b), an alternative method of establishing the second and third Shedden element is through a demonstration of continuity of symptomatology if the disability claimed qualifies as a chronic disease listed in 38 C.F.R. § 3.309 (a); sensorineural hearing loss is a qualifying chronic disease. See Walker v. Shinseki, 708 F.3d 1331 (Fed. Cir. 2013).
According to VA standards, impaired hearing will be considered a disability when the auditory threshold in any of the frequencies 500, 1000, 2000, 3000, or 4000 Hertz is 40 decibels or greater; or when the auditory thresholds for at least three of these frequencies are 26 decibels or greater; or when speech recognition scores using the Maryland CNC Test are less than 94 percent. 38 C.F.R. § 3.385. The Board notes, however, that the threshold for normal hearing is from 0 to 20 decibels, and higher threshold levels indicate some degree of hearing loss. See Hensley v. Brown, 5 Vet. App. 155, 159 (1993).
A layperson is competent to report on the onset and continuity of his current symptomatology. See 38 C.F.R. § 3.159 (a); see also Layno v. Brown, 6 Vet. App. 465, 470 (1994). Symptoms, not treatment, are the essence of any evidence of continuity of symptomatology.” Savage v. Gober, 10 Vet. App. 488, 496 (1997) (citing Wilson v. Derwinski, 2 Vet. App. 16, 19 (1991)).
The Veteran’s records document that he is diagnosed with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss consistent with VA regulations at 38 C.F.R. § 3.385. See December 2016 VA examination report.  Further, the Veteran was exposed to excessive noise based on his work with the Naval Mobile Construction Battalion and combat noise while in Vietnam.
The Veteran’s entrance and separation examination reports were absent of any complaints, findings, or diagnoses of hearing loss.
Although a VA examiner offered a negative nexus opinion, she based her opinion on the absence of a showing of loss on audiograms in service.  The absence of contemporaneous records is an insufficient basis for an adequate opinion.  Dalton v. Peake, 21 Vet. App. 23 (2007).  The sole valid evidence of record, then, is the competent and credible lay reports of the Veteran of the onset of some hearing problems in service, and the progression of such since that time.  This evidence of continuity and chronicity is sufficient to establish service connection.  The Board notes as well that this finding is consistent with the prior award of service connection for tinnitus based on this same in-service noise exposure.

 
WILLIAM H. DONNELLY 
Veterans Law Judge
Board of Veterans’ Appeals
ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD	S. Baxter, Associate Counsel