Yes, this is called somatic tinnitus and is actually quite common. Like you, I had this since I was a little child and thought this was normal. Only when I first heard of tinnitus as a juvenile, I realized that this is what I had.
There have been small studies regarding somatic tinnitus, see for instance
For modifying tinnitus loudness, the most common is that it increases when clenching the jaw. In the above paper, the cerebral blood flow was measured with PET, and for people with somatic tinnitus, when clenching their jaw, in addition to the sensory-motor areas, the auditory cortex became activated as well. However, the underlying reason is unknown.
In my case, I had pretty severe hearing loss as a little child because of liquid in my middle ear. Due to that, I continuously had my mouth open so that I could hear at least a little bit through the eustachian tubes, and I guess this might have influenced the interactions between these brain regions. But who knows. In the end, my parents realized what's going on and I got tympanostomy tubes, and I'm hearing fine now. Of course I don't know if the tinnitus really comes from that, because I cannot remember (I must have been around 3 years old).
It seems like some cases of tinnitus may be due to tight muscles, too. I don't usually suffer it, but when I do, I've noticed that sometimes massaging the back of the head or jaw can make it just go away. I doubt this works for everyone or for every cause, but it's simple enough to be worth trying to see if it does anything helpful.
This sounds like the tmj type. Probably most common type I've heard for muscular related, and even some ENTs will know about it
Grinding teeth at night is a common influencing factor, many other causes for tight tmj muscle
Scm area and neck-shoulder is a slightly lesser known but common category I've heard of where muscle s can influence tinnitus. I've heard forward neck posture and less developed core / & core breathing can be common influence for this kind, but similarly there many are other causes/influences. It also iirc stretches more than one muscle in the neck to shoulder that's common.
When learning more about these things, I liked a lot
1) "A multidisciplinary European guideline for tinnitus: diagnostics, assessment, and treatment"
2) Tufts eye and ear tinnitus seminar (video series from several years back)
Probably a few other resources, but those seem like the best to advertise on HN. There is extensive information elsewhere but more filtering required. E.g, some of the forums have great posts, but also a lot of other posts less great for general topic intro.
Sympathy and love, though, if anyone reading is having a hard time right now w/tinnitus. It can be difficult at times and in some circumstances. Id also like to note if you do have tinnitus and don't want to read more, that's ok too! For some people reading is the last thing they really need, and that's ok
There have been small studies regarding somatic tinnitus, see for instance
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2633109/
For modifying tinnitus loudness, the most common is that it increases when clenching the jaw. In the above paper, the cerebral blood flow was measured with PET, and for people with somatic tinnitus, when clenching their jaw, in addition to the sensory-motor areas, the auditory cortex became activated as well. However, the underlying reason is unknown.
In my case, I had pretty severe hearing loss as a little child because of liquid in my middle ear. Due to that, I continuously had my mouth open so that I could hear at least a little bit through the eustachian tubes, and I guess this might have influenced the interactions between these brain regions. But who knows. In the end, my parents realized what's going on and I got tympanostomy tubes, and I'm hearing fine now. Of course I don't know if the tinnitus really comes from that, because I cannot remember (I must have been around 3 years old).