Tinnitus and physical causes

[want2habituate]

I'm a guitarist and use hearing protection when playing with a band. However, at certain volumes / frequencies, even with the protection I get what feels like a vibration / buzz in my left ear...which has the worst tinnitus. It's not an enjoyable sensation but of course there's a lot of psychology at play too I suppose.

I've not had had an MRI. My (private health) ENT looked at my ears, said they were normal and that I should just ignore it, like he does....

Anyhow, I've heard of bones fusing together causing tinnitus....but not of them literally rattling.

It's a long shot I know, but could my ear reacting like that point to any kind of physical cause; bones, ear drum, Eustachian tubes...I guess any of the ear anatomy?

I know they can't do anything about nerve / hair cell damage (and some don't even believe in that theory any more like my ENT)....but it does have me wondering if this experience would indicate anything that could be investigated.

Worth asking I guess.....

[Fridays_Child_62]

To be honest, I don't know what is going on. I remember back in the days when I attended concerts without ear protection, at a couple of events the sound became distorted after a while - I thought it was the sound system at the time but now I think my ears had become overloaded and tired. Since my tinnitus got worse, I have stopped attending concerts, even with ear protection.

My audiologist told me that a vibrational sound in the ear can be caused by bones knocking together. Was it just a sonic vibration or an actual physical vibration that you could feel? There are muscles in the ear to stretch you eardrum is response to loud sound, in order to protect your inner ear. These muscles can also vibrate, which people experience as ear flutters. Could it be that?

[want2habituate in reply to Fridays_Child_62]

Possibly....at some point in the future maybe I'll see a different ENT and get an MRI scan to see if it shows anything.