Board Claims With No VA Rating Code

Some claims reach the Board of Veterans' Appeals for conditions VA's rating schedule gives no diagnostic code to.

This page catalogues two groups of them: alcohol and drug use claims, and dental, gum and mouth claims. It shows how many reached the Board, how they ended, and real examples in the Board's own words.

15,035Board issues with no rating code
4,232Alcohol and drug use
10,803Dental treatment and gum disease
1992–2026Years of Board decisions

Counted from Board decisions published 1992–2026, 14,089 decisions in all. RateMyVSO searched all 4,239,791 issue sentences in those decisions for dental, gum, mouth, alcohol and drug words, then had a language model read each of the 46,942 matches to sort out the claims with no rating code. How these were counted.

Alcohol and drug use claims

VA's rating schedule has no diagnostic code for alcohol or drug use. The law bars compensation for a disability that is the result of a veteran's own alcohol or drug abuse. A court decision carved out one exception: when the alcohol or drug use is caused by a service-connected condition, such as PTSD, the resulting disability can be compensated. Even then, VA rates it as part of the condition that caused it, not under a code of its own.

The rules: the compensation statute, 38 U.S.C. 1110, and VA's willful misconduct rule, 38 CFR 3.301. The secondary exception comes from the Federal Circuit's 2001 decision in Allen v. Principi. The full rule, with tobacco and obesity, is in Conditions VA May Not Compensate.

Claimed on its own

2,942 issues

Service connection asked for alcoholism, a drug addiction or nicotine dependence directly, with no service-connected cause named.

  • Granted 189
  • Denied 1,226
  • Remanded 1,309
  • Dismissed or other 218
DecisionYearOutcomeWhat the Board wrote
191246772019GrantedService connection for alcohol dependence is granted.
181150922018DismissedThe appeal of the issue of entitlement to service connection for drug and alcohol abuse is dismissed.
16186152016DeniedEntitlement to service connection for alcohol use disorder is denied.
99140211999RemandedEntitlement to service connection for drug abuse.

Search the decisions themselves in BVA Search

Claimed as secondary to a service-connected condition

1,290 issues

Service connection asked for alcohol or drug use as caused by a condition already service connected, most often PTSD.

  • Granted 307
  • Denied 318
  • Remanded 641
  • Dismissed or other 24
DecisionYearOutcomeWhat the Board wrote
A250405132025GrantedEntitlement to service connection for alcohol use disorder, as secondary to bipolar disorder, is granted.
230447552023DismissedEntitlement to service connection for alcoholism as secondary to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is dismissed.
97059091997RemandedEntitlement to service connection for drug and alcohol abuse secondary to post-traumatic stress disorder.
93061561993DeniedService connection for alcoholism, secondary to post- traumatic stress disorder, is denied.

Not counted here

A psychiatric claim that also names alcohol use, such as "PTSD with alcohol use disorder," is a PTSD claim. It keeps its psychiatric code and is counted on that code's page. So is a disease blamed on drinking or smoking, such as cirrhosis or lung cancer. A sentence that decides another claim along with the alcohol or drug claim keeps its code and is left out too. So does a claim to raise or restore a rating VA already assigned, because that rating sits under a code.

Dental and gum claims

VA's dental rating schedule gives compensation codes to a short list of mouth and jaw conditions: loss of the jaw bone, jaw fractures that heal badly, limited jaw motion, loss of teeth when the bone underneath is lost to injury or disease, and tumors of the mouth and jaw. The teeth and gum conditions VA's treatment-only rule names, such as cavities, missing teeth, root canals and gum disease, can be service connected for VA dental treatment only, not for monthly compensation.

The rules: VA's dental conditions rating schedule, 38 CFR 4.150 (diagnostic codes 9900 to 9918), and the treatment-only rule, 38 CFR 3.381. The two tracks are explained in Conditions VA May Not Compensate and the Dental and Oral Conditions Guide.

Dental treatment claims

9,220 issues

Claims for a "dental disorder," missing teeth, cavities, tooth decay, dental abscesses, dental trauma or payment for dental care, with no compensable jaw condition named.

  • Granted 841
  • Denied 4,115
  • Remanded 3,226
  • Dismissed or other 1,038
DecisionYearOutcomeWhat the Board wrote
A240033532024GrantedEntitlement to service connection for a dental condition, for treatment purposes only, is granted.
A200015532020RemandedEntitlement to service connection for residuals of a dental injury for treatment purposes is remanded.
17533742017DeniedService connection for a dental disability to teeth numbered 23, 24, and 25, for the purpose of obtaining VA compensation, is denied.
191786662019DismissedService connection for loss of teeth is dismissed.

Gum disease claims

1,583 issues

Claims for gum disease, gingivitis, periodontal disease and receding gums, including gum disease claimed as caused by another condition such as diabetes.

  • Granted 77
  • Denied 890
  • Remanded 518
  • Dismissed or other 98
DecisionYearOutcomeWhat the Board wrote
250078332025RemandedEntitlement to service connection for a dental condition, to include periodontal disease, is remanded.
191389372019DeniedService connection for gum pain is denied.
08042172008DismissedThe claim for entitlement to service connection for periodontal disease, to include as secondary to service- connected grand mal epilepsy, is dismissed.
01090662001GrantedEntitlement to service connection for gum disease is granted.

Not counted here

Jaw conditions with their own code stay on their code pages: temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorder, 9905, jaw fractures, 9904 and loss of teeth from bone loss, 9913. So do mouth conditions VA rates under other codes: mouth and tongue cancers, dry mouth, mouth infections left by cancer treatment, mouth ulcers, and scars or injuries of the mouth. Teeth grinding (bruxism) is left out as well, because VA sometimes rates it by comparison with the jaw joint code. A claim to raise or restore a dental rating VA already assigned keeps its code and is left out too.

How these were counted

  • The search: every issue sentence in Board decisions from 1992 to 2026, 4,239,791 in all, was searched for dental, tooth, gum, mouth, alcohol, drug, substance and similar words. That found 46,942 sentences.
  • The reading: a language model running on RateMyVSO's own computer read each of the 46,942 and sorted it into a group, or set it aside as not one of these claims. A second reading split the gum and mouth sentences into gum disease, plain dental treatment, and mouth conditions VA does rate.
  • The check: RateMyVSO re-read a random 100 of the first readings against the Board's sentence: 90 of 100 right, 7 wrong, 3 unclear. The gum and mouth split was checked the same way: 48 of 50 right, 2 unclear (a bare "mouth condition" and "oral condition", both kept their code), 0 wrong. So a small share of the sentences counted here may belong somewhere else.
  • What one issue means: one issue sentence in one Board decision. A veteran whose case came back to the Board twice is counted twice.

Common questions

Why do these claims have no rating code?
VA's rating schedule only gives codes to conditions it pays compensation for. The law bars compensation for a veteran's own alcohol or drug abuse, and most dental conditions are service connected for treatment only. A claim for one of these can still reach the Board, so the decision exists, but there is no code to file it under.
Can alcohol or drug use ever be compensated?
Yes, when it is caused by a service-connected condition. The Federal Circuit said so in Allen v. Principi in 2001. VA then rates the disability as part of the condition that caused it, so it still has no code of its own.
Which dental conditions do have a code?
The codes 9900 to 9918 in VA's dental rating schedule, 38 CFR 4.150. They cover the jaw bone, the jaw joint, loss of teeth when the bone under them is lost, and tumors of the mouth and jaw. Cavities, gum disease and lost teeth without bone loss are not on that list.
Can I still find these decisions?
Yes. BVA Search reads the full text of every decision, so a search for a word such as "periodontal" or "alcoholism" finds them whether or not they carry a code.

This page catalogues published Board decisions for reference only. It is not legal advice and does not predict how any claim will turn out. RateMyVSO is not part of VA. Browse every tool and guide on the site.