Just wanted to provide some info about my recent Tinnitus C&P Exam for awareness. I filed my claim on 4/22/26. I received a phone call 5 days after filing my claim by Liedos QTC to set the exam appointment. I had my exam this morning (5/5), and overall it was a pleasant experience. My examiner had a Doctor of Audiology degree in 2017, according to the paperwork I received from Leidos, and she had been doing examinations for the VA since 2019. I arrived early for the appointment, and they had me fill out a one-page questionnaire. Questions mainly focused on my pre-military, military, and post-military exposure to loud noises. At the top of the form, it asked for my period(s) of military service and my job duties. It also asked other questions like: Did I shoot guns, engage in motorsports, etc? Check the box for all that apply. I had to write a brief description of my military service exposure to loud noises. I then took that back to the front admission window.
About 10 minutes later, the doctor called me back for my exam. She was quiet, not openly friendly, and I was a bit worried about her demeanor. But I reminded myself that this is not like a PCP office visit, and friendliness is optional. We sat in her office while she asked me a few questions, and she typed on her laptop. She asked if I had constant ringing, when it started, if it had always been in both ears, etc. She also referenced my responses to the questionnaire and commented that my printing was small. Her questions included "What type of work did you do before the military?" and "Did you have exposure to any APUs or Generators?" Also, what type of work have you done outside of the military, and was I still employed in that profession? She kept typing furiously, it seemed. She then asked me if the ringing was louder in one ear versus the other (mine is, right ear much louder). Then she stood up and came around to my side of the desk. She examined both ears with a scope and made no comments. She then did the ear pressure test (tympanometry) with a machine on each of my ears. Again, no comments other than "This won't hurt, you may feel some slight pressure, but don't feel like you need to react to that."
After that test, she then asked me to take a seat in the booth and put on the headphones. I did so, and she instructed me to pick up the button handset and key the button when I detected a sound, but not to key the button when I hear only static noise. This went on for about 15 minutes, alternating between ears and sound volume/pitch. Sometimes there was static along with the sound; most of the time, there was no static. I did have a long, silent period, it seemed, where I was tempted to press the button because I hadn't heard anything in a long time (funny how that urge happens, lol). Then, through the headset, she instructed me to repeat a word out loud after a man's voice said the word over the headphones. I did about 50 of these for each ear. I could see that the Dr was just outside the booth writing something as I responded to the verbal cues. Then she came into the booth and put something that looked like a very thin headset over the back of my neck, and then put the first sound headset back on my left ear only. As she was leaving the booth, I asked, "Should the headphones also be on my right ear?" and she responded, "No." She told me to key the handset button when I heard a tone again. This time, there was a lot of static in the background, and it increased in volume over several steps. All of this was done on the left ear only.
Then she came into the booth, took the two headsets off of me, and told me to hang the handset back up. She then told me to follow her as she walked me out the side door of the facility, she said she would upload the exam results today and I should hear back from the VA in 5-8 weeks. Total time spent with her was around 25-30 minutes. I just logged into my VA claim file, and I can see that it has 4 new files starting with "DBQ" in the filename uploaded into my claim. I have submitted an FOIA request to get copies of those 4 files. Overall, it was a good experience. I felt that she read my statement and listened to my answers and documented them. She gave me no indication if she was favorable to my claim or not. We shall see soon, more to come.