Question:
Jim, I recently received my final rating letter from the VA and it was 92%. The issue I have is I have had a bad TMJ problem for most of my 30 year career, and they did not rate this claim at all. They rolled it in as a secondary to sleep apnea, and granted service connected for VA dental care, but they didn't give me a percentage rating at all for it. I received 50% for the sleep apnea, but nothing for the TMJ apparently. The C&P evaluation confirmed my mouth opening was only 11-20 mm which meets the threshold for a 30% rating in of itself. Previous orofacial consults confirmed the same before I got out. Because they failed to apply a rating, which likely could had been a 30%, I was potentially denied a total rating of 100%. My TMJ condition started in 1991 and my sleep apnea was diagnosed in 2018...the TMJ has absolutely no connection to my sleep apnea as the VA claims, nor was it claimed as a secondary condition. Is this normal for the VA to roll a claim into other conditions like this and give no percentage rating at all? Or should it had been rated still?
I really feel I was intentionally shorted by the VA to prevent a 100% rating which my rated conditions would have otherwise been entitled to. Is my only option to appeal?
Jim's Reply:
Any time we disagree with a decision, our only real choice in the matter is to file an appeal, beginning with a NOD.
Now...did some random rater at VA decide that yours was one that would be denied for no good reason? No, as popular as that thought is, most of the raters I've known have been honest and hard working. The rater has nothing to gain by arbitrarily refusing you a benefit so we'll assume that either your rating is correct or a mistake has been made.
I don't understand how your rating was finalized since I don't have your file in font of me but again, if you're unhappy you will have to formally appeal...there really is no choice.