When speaking to Veterans about Disability Benefits, there are some questions that get asked a lot, like: How long will my claim take to process? But there are some questions we don’t receive very often, like: Can I service Connect for my teeth? The answer to both of the questions, like most things when dealing with disability compensation, is not simple.
We addressed the timeline in a previous blog, but this is a great opportunity to discuss service connection for dental issues. In order to get service connection on a dental issue, you must have received some sort of trauma or were a POW. Service connection may be established for individual teeth if injured due to trauma. If service connected, you may receive treatment for your tooth (or teeth) but will not receive compensation benefits. Being able to get your teeth cleaned and checked regularly at the VA is rare unless you were a Prisoner of War. However, there are some ways to get dental assistance at the VA.
If you apply for dental care within 180 days of discharge or release and you have an honorable discharge and served 90 or more days in the Persian Gulf War, you could get one time dental care if your DD 214 certificate of discharge does not indicate that a complete dental examination and all appropriate dental treatments had been done prior to discharge. If you have a dental condition which is clinically determined by the VA to be relatedto and aggravating a service connected condition you can get dental care to treat the oral conditions that are determined by the VA dental expert to have a direct material connection to your medical condition. If you have a service connected compensable dental disability or condition, or are 100% service connected for any issue, or 100% individually unemployable, you can have any needed dental care. If you are service connected and receiving 0% non-compensable for a dental condition they will only treat you for that specific service connected condition.
Like we mentioned, it’s not a simple answer, but it is possible for some Veterans to get help with dental care and some Veterans can get Service Connected for their teeth. The VA Disability Process can be complicated, that is why so many Veterans turn to the legal professionals at Jan Dils Attorneys at Law. If you would like to know more about what we do, or if you would like a FREE consultation, give us a call: 1-877-526-3457, or tell us about your claim now by clicking here.
