What’s your situation?
- VA denied my claim: What to check after a denial
- I'm claiming this condition for the first time: How to file a VA claim for tinnitus
- My current rating no longer fits: Tinnitus rating increase: what can actually change
- I have a claim exam coming up: C&P exam preparation
Tinnitus VA rating: a single 10%
| Rating | Criteria — Diagnostic Code 6260, Tinnitus | In plain language | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10% | Tinnitus, recurrent | Recurrent tinnitus — ringing or another sound that comes back — in one ear, both ears, or in the head. One 10% evaluation is the whole scale. | Note (2) allows a single evaluation however the sound is perceived; there is no higher tinnitus percentage under this code. |
Notes from the regulation:
- Note (1): A separate evaluation for tinnitus may be combined with an evaluation under diagnostic codes 6100, 6200, 6204, or other diagnostic code, except when tinnitus is used in support of an evaluation under any of those diagnostic codes.
- Note (2): Assign only a single evaluation for recurrent tinnitus, whether the sound is perceived in one ear, both ears, or in the head.
- Note (3): Objective tinnitus (in which the sound is audible to other people and has some identifiable cause that may be resolved by surgery or other treatment) is not evaluated under DC 6260, but rather as part of the underlying condition from which it results.
What the TBI code says
DC 8045 rates most TBI residuals through its ten-facet table, but it carves out physical dysfunctions: emotional and behavioral dysfunction is rated under the mental disorders schedule, and other physical dysfunction — the list runs from endocrine dysfunction to hearing loss and tinnitus — is evaluated under the appropriate diagnostic code. Tinnitus claimed as a TBI residual is therefore still a DC 6260 evaluation: recurrent tinnitus, 10%, alongside whatever the TBI table produces for the cognitive and other facets.
The same section adds that a residual with a distinct diagnosis may be separately evaluated rather than under the TBI table, and that VA will not assign more than one evaluation for the same manifestations that cannot be clearly separated — the anti-pyramiding limit that decides how the pieces fit together.
In this series: Tinnitus VA rating
- Tinnitus VA rating criteria: the DC 6260 notes
The full text of Diagnostic Code 6260 — recurrent tinnitus at 10% — and the three regulatory notes that decide how the evaluation combines with other ear ratings.
- How to file a VA claim for tinnitus
What to file for tinnitus under DC 6260: the claim itself, the noise-exposure and continuity evidence that carries service connection, and the audiology exam.
- Tinnitus rating increase: what can actually change
There is no tinnitus evaluation above 10% under DC 6260. What can change: a missing separate evaluation, a Meniere's evaluation, and the ratings of the conditions around the tinnitus.
Filing tinnitus alongside TBI residuals
Claim the tinnitus expressly and connect it to the injury: the blast or impact event, treatment records from the time noting ringing or hearing change, and continuity since. If tinnitus appears in your records but was never separately evaluated — a common outcome when a TBI claim is decided as a single package — the fix is a claim or Supplemental Claim asking for the separate DC 6260 evaluation DC 8045 directs. Veterans pursue this as a standard part of TBI residual claims; like any secondary or residual claim, it stands on the medical evidence linking the tinnitus to the injury.
TBI residual evidence worksheet
A tinnitus-as-TBI-residual claim stands on the link between the injury event and the ringing. Assemble this record so the rater can trace that line without guessing.