Just resurrecting this thread as it seems to be the most recent and comprehensive on hearing problems for musicians. And I have looked at most if the threads to which Matthew Edwards linked above.
My situation has changed somewhat since my last post 4 years ago. I had Meniere's Disease when younger, but had enjoyed a remission lasting 36 years after surgery to my right ear in 1981 (saccus endolymphaticus drainage): my left ear had been functionally destroyed by the same disease in childhood (yes, MD can occur in childhood). So now it's back with a vengeance in the form of rampantly loud tinnitus in both ears, hearing of speech and music very badly distorted: speech sounds like those "disguised voices" you get on TV crime documentaries and is barely intelligible, and music all sounds severely out of tune, so much so that I bave not touched an instrument or sung for weeks. I did go and get a hearing test in November, and now have 2 private digital hearing aids which can just cut through some of the noise inside my head. I know I could have got aids free on the NHS, but waiting times for ENT appointments are such that they can't even give me a date: just "you are on the waiting list for an appointment". Meantime my hearing is on a rapid slippery downward slope, sleep disturbed, balance poor (though none of the dreadfully violent dizzy turns I used to get, just a couple of milder ones), and I'm turning into a recluse. Medication is of no use at all ( Betahistine first, then Cinnarizine.) Seems nothing much has changed for treating this disease in the last 40 years? Unless any of you good folk here know of any new breakthroughs?