Citation Nr: 21002860 Decision Date: 01/19/21 Archive Date: 01/19/21 DOCKET NO. 16-56 481 DATE: January 19, 2021 ORDER Entitlement to service connection for bilateral hearing loss disorder is denied. FINDINGS OF FACT 1. The probative evidence indicates that the Veteran does not have a right ear hearing loss disorder as defined by VA regulations. 2. The Veteran’s current left ear hearing loss disorder is not related to service and the Veteran did not have a preexisting left ear hearing loss disorder that was aggravated by service. CONCLUSION OF LAW The criteria for service connection for a bilateral hearing loss disorder have not been met. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 1131; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.303, 3.385. REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION The Veteran served on active duty from February 1975 to February 1978 and from March 1981 to March 1984. In January 2020 the Board remanded the Veteran’s claim for service connection for bilateral hearing loss disorder for a new VA medical opinion. The requested opinion has been obtained that the Veteran’s claim is now ready for Board review. 1. Entitlement to service connection for bilateral hearing loss disorder. The Veteran submitted his claim for service connection for hearing loss in April 2015. At his September 2019 hearing the Veteran asserted that he was exposed to the loud sound of artillery while in service. He reported that he had hearing problems at the time he was exposed to the artillery noise and that he has had hearing problems ever since he was in service. Service connection for VA compensation purposes will be granted for a disability resulting from disease or personal injury incurred in the line of duty or for aggravation of a preexisting injury in the active military, naval or air service. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1110, 1131; 38 C.F.R. § 3.303. To establish direct service connection, there must be (1) medical evidence of a current disability; (2) medical, or in certain circumstances, lay evidence of in-service incurrence or aggravation of a disease or injury; and (3) medical evidence of a nexus between the claimed in-service disease or injury and the current disability. Hickson v. West, 12 Vet. App. 247 (1999). Under VA guidelines, impaired hearing will be considered a disability when the auditory threshold in any of the frequencies 500, 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000 Hertz is 40 decibels or greater; or when the auditory thresholds for at least three of the frequencies 500, 1000, 2000, 3000, or 4000 Hertz 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. While the Veteran believes he has hearing loss disability as defined by VA due to service, he is not qualified to provide an opinion in this case. The issue is medically complex, as it requires audiological testing in accordance with VA standards. Jandreau v. Nicholson, 492 F.3d 1372, 1377, 1377 n.4 (Fed. Cir. 2007). Consequently, the Board gives more probative weight to the competent medical evidence. The Board recognizes that there is a September 2019 letter from a hearing aid provider stating that the Veteran has bilateral hearing loss. The Board finds that this letter is of no probative value. The author of the letter indicated that he had an MBA, but provided no indication that he was qualified to provide an opinion regarding hearing loss. Furthermore, VA requires that an examination for hearing impairment for VA purposes must be conducted by a state-licensed audiologist. See 38 C.F.R. § 4.85(a). As there is no indication that the author of the letter is qualified to provide an opinion on the presence of, or the etiology of, hearing loss, and there is no indication that he is a state-licensed audiologist, his opinion is of no probative value. The Veteran was provided VA audiometric examinations in April 2015, July 2015, and October 2020. These reports show that the Veteran does not have a right ear hearing loss disability under 38 C.F.R. § 3.385. The examinations noted no auditory thresholds of 26 decibels or higher in the right ear at the frequencies 500, 1000, 2000, 3000, and 4000 Hertz. These examinations all noted that the Veteran’s right ear speech recognition scores were above 94 percent. Moreover, VA treatment records are negative for evidence of right ear hearing loss disability under 38 C.F.R. § 3.385. As such, the claim for a right ear hearing loss disorder must be denied. See Palczewski v. Nicholson, 21 Vet. App. 174, 178-80 (2007) (specifically upholding the validity of 38 C.F.R. § 3.385 to define hearing loss for VA compensation purposes). With regards to the Veteran’s left ear, the service treatment records (STR) show on October 1974 entry examination the Veteran had auditory thresholds of 15, 20, 5, 10 and 35 decibels in the left ear, at the respective frequencies of 500, 1000, 2000, 3000, and 4000 Hertz. In October 1977, on examination for discharge from his first period of active duty, the Veteran had auditory thresholds of 15, 10, 10, and 25 decibels in the left ear, at the respective frequencies of 500, 1000, 2000, and 4000 Hertz. STR show that in February 1981, on audiological examination for entry into his second period of active duty the Veteran had auditory thresholds of 5, 15, 5, 5 and 20 decibels, at the respective frequencies of 500, 1000, 2000, 3000, and 4000 Hertz. In August 1983 the Veteran was provided a reference audiogram following exposure to noise duties. The Veteran had auditory thresholds of 5, 15, 5, 10 and 30 decibels in the left ear, at the respective frequencies of 500, 1000, 2000, 3000, and 4000 Hertz. The April 2015, July 2015, and October 2020 VA audiology reports all reveal that the Veteran currently has left ear hearing loss disability as defined by VA. The April 2015 and October 2020 VA audiograms revealed the Veteran to have a 40-decibel auditory threshold in the left ear at 4000 Hertz. The July 2015 VA audiogram noted that the Veteran’s auditory threshold at 4000 Hertz was 50 decibels in the left ear. These VA audiograms did not show the Veteran to have hearing loss in the left ear at the other relevant frequencies. The April 2015 VA audiologist did not provide any opinions regarding the etiology of the Veteran’s left ear hearing loss disorder. The July 2015 VA audiologist opined that the Veteran’s current left ear hearing loss is not due to military service. She noted that the service treatment records revealed high frequency hearing loss at enlistment and high frequency hearing loss at separation. She stated that there was no clinically significant shift in hearing sensitivity noted at any testing frequency. She opined that due to there being no significant threshold shift there was no aggravation of hearing loss by service. The October 2020 VA audiologist opined that the Veteran’s current left ear hearing loss was not related to military service. He further noted that there was no significant shift in hearing thresholds beyond test variability from entrance to separation, which is objective evidence of no permanent auditory damage on active duty from noise. He further opined that the Veteran had a preexisting left ear hearing loss prior to service that was not aggravated beyond normal progression in military service. Although the July 2015 and October 2020 VA audiologists stated that the Veteran had left ear hearing loss that existed prior to service, none of the in-service audiometric examinations revealed the Veteran to have hearing loss as defined by VA and none of the STRs contain any hearing loss complaints or diagnoses of left ear hearing loss. Regardless, even if the Veteran were considered to have had left ear hearing loss that existed prior to service, the July 2015 and October 2020 VA audiologists opined that the preexisting hearing loss was not aggravated by service. Consequently, the Veteran would not be entitled to service connection for left ear hearing loss based on aggravation of a preexisting disability. The Veteran was first documented as having left ear hearing loss as defined by VA in April 2015, more than 30 years after discharge from service. Both the July 2015 and October 2020 VA audiologists opined that the Veteran’s current left ear hearing loss is unrelated to service. There is no probative evidence to the contrary. The Board finds that the greater weight of the evidence, and the most probative evidence, clearly shows that the Veteran’s current left ear hearing loss is unrelated to service. As shown above, the preponderance of the evidence is against the claim, and service connection for a bilateral hearing loss disorder is not warranted. Gilbert v. Derwinski, 1 Vet. App. 49, 55-57 (1990). The claim is denied. G. A. WASIK Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans’ Appeals Attorney for the Board R. E. Jones, Counsel The Board’s decision in this case is binding only with respect to the instant matter decided. This decision is not precedential and does not establish VA policies or interpretations of general applicability. 38 C.F.R. § 20.1303.