I have tinnitus. I had brain surgery to remove an acoustic schwannoma. The doctor said that I would lose all hearing in the ear due to the unavoidable damage to the acoustic nerve.

Well, at least that will get rid of the tinnitus, I thought.

No such luck! I still have tinnitus.

As such I think there may be more to tinnitus than undetected nerve damage.

It isn’t clear cut though: I have some hearing in that ear after all (to the surprise of the doctor). But the tinnitus came back (or never went away) before any hearing returned.