The VA disability rating for TMJ runs from 10 to 50 percent under Diagnostic Code 9905 in 38 CFR § 4.150, based on how far your jaw opens and whether a physician has documented that you need a mechanically altered diet.1eCFR. 38 CFR 4.150 – Schedule of Ratings – Dental and Oral Conditions The schedule is a grid: your maximum unassisted vertical opening in millimeters is combined with any dietary restriction to land on a single percentage. One tier of difference is worth hundreds of dollars a month, so the details matter.
How Diagnostic Code 9905 Works
The examiner measures your maximum unassisted vertical opening — the distance between your upper and lower front teeth when you open as wide as you can without help. Normal opening is 35 to 50 mm, and openings in that range are not compensable. Compensable ratings start when your opening drops to 34 mm or below.1eCFR. 38 CFR 4.150 – Schedule of Ratings – Dental and Oral Conditions
Range of motion alone gives you the baseline:
- 10 percent for 30 to 34 mm
- 20 percent for 21 to 29 mm
- 30 percent for 11 to 20 mm
- 40 percent for 0 to 10 mm
To reach 50 percent, the top rating under DC 9905, your jaw has to open 10 mm or less and you also have to require a diet of entirely mechanically altered foods.1eCFR. 38 CFR 4.150 – Schedule of Ratings – Dental and Oral Conditions
How Diet Changes the Rating
DC 9905 recognizes four levels of mechanically altered food: full liquid, puree, soft, and semi-solid. These are foods blended, chopped, ground, or mashed so they are easier to chew and swallow. When a physician has recorded that you need one of these diets because of your TMJ, the percentage goes up at each range-of-motion tier.1eCFR. 38 CFR 4.150 – Schedule of Ratings – Dental and Oral Conditions
The combined grid:
- 30 to 34 mm: 10 percent with no diet restriction, 20 percent on a soft or semi-solid diet, 30 percent on a full liquid or pureed diet
- 21 to 29 mm: 20 percent with no restriction, 30 percent on a soft or semi-solid diet, 40 percent on a full liquid or pureed diet
- 11 to 20 mm: 30 percent with no restriction, 40 percent on any mechanically altered diet
- 0 to 10 mm: 40 percent with no restriction, 50 percent on any mechanically altered diet
The dietary restriction has to be recorded or verified by a physician to count.1eCFR. 38 CFR 4.150 – Schedule of Ratings – Dental and Oral Conditions Telling the C&P examiner that you eat soft foods because your jaw hurts is not enough on its own. Your treating dentist or doctor needs to document in your medical records that a modified diet is medically necessary because of your TMJ. Skip that step and the rating usually comes back based only on your millimeter measurement.
What Each Rating Pays
For a single veteran with no dependents, under the rates effective December 1, 2025, monthly compensation runs about $180 at 10 percent, roughly $357 at 20 percent, approximately $552 at 30 percent, about $796 at 40 percent, and around $1,133 at 50 percent.2Veterans Affairs. Current Veterans Disability Compensation Rates Rates go up if you have dependents.
Lateral Excursion — An Either/Or, Not an Add-On
DC 9905 also covers side-to-side jaw movement. Lateral excursion limited to 0 to 4 mm warrants a 10 percent rating. The regulation is explicit that you cannot combine a lateral excursion rating with a vertical opening rating; the VA assigns whichever produces the higher percentage.1eCFR. 38 CFR 4.150 – Schedule of Ratings – Dental and Oral Conditions For most veterans the vertical measurement drives the outcome.
What the C&P Exam Measures
After you file, the VA schedules a Compensation and Pension exam with a VA provider or contract examiner. The examiner uses the Disability Benefits Questionnaire for Temporomandibular Disorders and records both active and passive range of motion in millimeters, taking the interincisal distance and lateral excursion for each side.3U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Temporomandibular Disorders Disability Benefits Questionnaire The measurements need to be precise enough to place you in the right bracket.
Beyond the ruler, the examiner checks for crepitus (grinding or popping), tenderness on palpation of the joint and surrounding tissue, and pain during opening or lateral movement. Repetitive-use testing has you open and close at least three times so any loss of function after repetition is captured. If you report flare-ups, the examiner is supposed to estimate your range of motion during those episodes based on your description and the record.3U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Temporomandibular Disorders Disability Benefits Questionnaire
The examiner will also ask whether you need mechanically altered foods and whether a physician has documented that. If it isn’t in your records before the exam, it usually won’t factor into the rating. Getting the diet documentation in place beforehand is the most practical thing you can do to support the claim.
Filing and Protecting Your Effective Date
The application is VA Form 21-526EZ, which you can file online at VA.gov, by mail to the Claims Intake Center at PO Box 4444, Janesville, WI 53547-4444, or in person at a regional office.4Veterans Affairs. How To File A VA Disability Claim The strongest TMJ filings include a current diagnosis from a dentist or physician, service treatment records showing jaw complaints or dental trauma during active duty, and a nexus letter tying the condition to specific events in your service history.
Effective date rules matter almost as much as the rating itself. Under 38 CFR § 3.400, the effective date is generally the date the VA receives your claim or the date your condition arose, whichever is later. File within one year of separation and the effective date can go back to the day after discharge.5eCFR. 38 CFR 3.400 – General If you need time to gather records and get the diet documented, file an Intent to File (VA Form 21-0966). That locks in your potential effective date and gives you a year to submit the full claim.6Veterans Affairs. Your Intent To File A VA Claim Let the year lapse and the effective date resets to whenever you actually file.
Temporary 100 Percent After Jaw Surgery
If surgery for your service-connected TMJ requires at least a month of recovery or leaves severe postoperative residuals, 38 CFR § 4.30 provides a temporary total (100 percent) convalescent rating.7eCFR. 38 CFR 4.30 – Convalescent Ratings It starts on the date of hospital admission or outpatient treatment and runs for one, two, or three months from the first day of the month after discharge. After that, your rating returns to whatever the schedule supports. Request it and send in the surgical records; the VA does not always assign it automatically.
Secondary Conditions Worth Claiming
TMJ rarely travels alone. Under 38 CFR § 3.310, any condition caused or aggravated by a service-connected disability qualifies for its own separate service connection and rating.8eCFR. 38 CFR 3.310 – Disabilities That Are Proximately Due To, or Aggravated By, Service-Connected Disease or Injury Each secondary condition is rated on its own and combined with your existing ratings using VA math.
Migraines are one of the most common secondaries tied to TMJ. Under Diagnostic Code 8100, migraines rate at 30 percent for prostrating attacks averaging once a month and 50 percent when attacks are very frequent and produce severe economic hardship. Bruxism runs the other direction: veterans with service-connected PTSD or anxiety sometimes develop teeth grinding that damages the joint over time, making TMJ itself the secondary condition to the psychiatric disability. Either way, the case needs a medical opinion connecting the two and records showing when the secondary condition appeared or worsened.8eCFR. 38 CFR 3.310 – Disabilities That Are Proximately Due To, or Aggravated By, Service-Connected Disease or Injury
Even a maxed 50 percent TMJ rating by itself does not meet the schedular thresholds for Total Disability based on Individual Unemployability under 38 CFR § 4.16, which generally require a single disability at 60 percent or multiple disabilities with one at 40 percent and a combined rating of 70 percent.9eCFR. 38 CFR 4.16 – Total Disability Ratings for Compensation Based on Unemployability of the Individual Secondary claims are often what pushes a TMJ-based combined rating into TDIU territory.
If the Rating Comes Back Low or Denied
A low rating usually traces back to one of two things: the C&P measurements landed just above a threshold, or the diet restriction was never documented. Which appeal lane fits depends on which problem you have.
A Supplemental Claim (VA Form 20-0995) is the right lane when you have new and relevant evidence, such as a newly documented dietary restriction, updated imaging, or a stronger nexus letter.10Veterans Affairs. Supplemental Claims A Higher-Level Review (VA Form 20-0996) is for cases where the record was already good enough and the rater applied the wrong criteria or ignored favorable evidence; no new evidence is allowed, and the deadline is generally one year from the decision notice. A Board Appeal to the Board of Veterans’ Appeals takes longer but allows both new evidence and a hearing. For most TMJ denials driven by an incomplete medical picture, the Supplemental Claim with new documentation is the more productive path.