Reference: 38 CFR 4.87

Tinnitus: Terminology

Plain-English definitions of the terms used

Terminology

Plain-English terms

Recurrent tinnitus

Ongoing or repeating head noise that isn't a one-time thing.

DC 6260 rates recurrent tinnitus at a single flat 10 percent - this is the only percentage the code provides.

audiology notes; ENT records

Objective tinnitus

Head noise with a findable physical source, rather than noise only the veteran can hear with no identifiable cause.

DC 6260's Note (3) excludes objective tinnitus from this code - it is evaluated as part of the underlying condition causing it, not as a separate DC 6260 finding.

ENT or audiology findings identifying a physical cause

Single-evaluation rule

One rating for tinnitus, no matter which ear (or both) it's in.

Prevents a bilateral tinnitus finding from being treated as two separate ratings.

audiology or ENT notes describing laterality

Combination rule (DC 6260 Note 1)

Tinnitus and certain other ear or hearing findings, or any other condition a tinnitus finding might otherwise help support, can usually both be rated and combined, unless the same tinnitus finding is already being used to help qualify for the other rating. The rule's real purpose is to stop the same tinnitus finding from being double-counted, not to limit which conditions tinnitus can combine with.

Prevents the same underlying finding from being counted twice while still allowing genuinely separate findings to combine.

records for the other condition being combined

TDIU

Even if the schedular rating for Tinnitus does not reach 100 percent, TDIU may still provide a pathway to compensation at the 100 percent rate, based on unemployability from this and/or other service-connected disabilities combined.

A lower schedular percentage does not by itself foreclose TDIU eligibility -- this hub computes only the schedular percentage for this specific condition and does not determine TDIU eligibility.

Employment history; vocational impact documentation; occupational impairment

Keep going

Compare a percentage level and combined-rating math, or review evidence context.

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Percentage Guide

See what each percentage level means for your condition, then use the whole-person calculator to combine more than one rating.

Open Percentage Guide

Evidence Categories

Understand common evidence categories and what they can clarify without treating them as a checklist.

Review evidence categories