I have a strong tinnitus, 20 years ago I asked a doctor if he could do something about it. He put his stethoscope on my skull and told me "It's weird I can hear something". Alas, he was unable to help me.
Since today I haven't thought about the contradiction between a physical and the omnipresent mantra that "Tinnitus is not something physical, it is just a noise that the brain made up".
The 'noise the brain made up' has never made much sense to me. It's more likely physical damage to the sensory mechanism in the ear. One thing that surprised me when I googled how the ear works is that there is an active amplifier mechanism in there so if that's getting feedback it could make a noise your doc could hear.
Part of the cochlear amplifier mechanism is cells which move in response to electrical signals so you can hook them to a sound system for a laugh: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXgFae2r1s8
Tinnitus other people can hear has a name - objective tinnitus - and is a thing though less common than subjective tinnitus which they can't.
As an aside the explanations I've read of what the amplifier cells do seem wrong to me in that they say they make the sound louder. From an engineering point of view you'd imagine it would make more sense to provide negative feedback loop so the membrane doesn't move too much and overload the ion channel gate which must only have a useful movement range of a few nm.
It may be dumb but I had things to manage like work and children in their teens, so tinnitus management had a low priority. Still, I look avidly at discussions about tinnitus. I tried the method of tapping on the neck, but it did not work for me. I tried hearing aids, but it didn't help either.
I'm not a doctor, and I couldn't give you medical advice if I was, but tinnitus can be caused by health conditions you really should get checked out. High blood pressure etc.
How loud was your tinnitus compared to everyday noises? Mine can be masked by urban environment during the day, and my doctor never used a stethoscope on me yet.
At times I'm wondering if the Cicada emergence (17 year brood here) is masking tinnitus or if tinnitus will mask the cicadas.
As they get louder, I can easily hear them over tinnitus. The cicada sound itself is interesting. Distant ones combine to make a sort of steady hum, almost a whistling noise. Ones that are close by make a distinctive sharp wavering buzzing noise. The sounds are distinctive and there doesn't seem to be any in between.
