Orka Hearing Aids User Guide

Orka Hearing Aids

Product Information

Thank you for choosing Orka hearing aids. This guide is intended to make the initial period of your Orka journey go smoothly.

Product Usage Instructions

First-time hearing aids user

Hearing sounds that seem noisy

This is temporary. The increased auditory stimuli may make you feel uncomfortable or overwhelmed initially. However, as you wear the hearing aids over time, you’ll find the sounds to be as familiar and sweet as your old friends.

Hearing voices, but not understanding the speech

This is an improvement! Adequate loudness and a well-functioning language center of the brain are involved in speech understanding. Give your brain some time to adjust since you haven’t been exposed to enough sound stimuli for a while. To facilitate this, be
proactive in conversations with your friends and family members. Ask them to be patient, talk slowly, and clearly without liaison or elision. You can also connect your hearing aids to devices via Bluetooth to watch well-articulated videos like news broadcasts and
documentaries at a slower speed (e.g., 0.75x speed).

The hearing aids are making a harsh sound, are they malfunctioning?

No, the harsh sound is called whistling or feedback. It occurs when the sound from the hearing aid receiver is captured by the microphone. To avoid whistling, use properly sized earpieces and adjust their position to make a perfect seal with your ears.
Alternatively, you can switch to double domes that are more occlusive, but this may produce an occlusion effect.

My ears feel plugged up when wearing hearing aids

It’s normal to feel this way initially. The silicone earpieces of Orka hearing aids need to be put exactly into the ear canal, which your ears will keenly detect. If the blockage in your ears becomes unbearable, please ventilate your ear canal intermittently. Alternatively, with the advice of Orka Hearing Care Professionals, you can switch to the open domes available in accessories.

Experienced hearing aids user

Please refer to the specific sections in the user manual that address your concerns and questions as an experienced hearing aids user.

Your Journey to Better Hearing
Starts Here

Dear Orka users,
Thank you for choosing Orka hearing aids.

When using new hearing aids, you are likely to go through three stages: “trying → ⁠practicing →⁠ adapting”. This guide is intended to make the initial period of your Orka journey go smoothly. Ready? Let’s embrace the world of new hearing!

What should I expect in the first few weeks?

First-time hearing aids user

Hearing sounds that seem noisy.
This is temporary. You may feel uncomfortable or overwhelmed for a while because the world suddenly becomes louder with the increased auditory stimuli.
Don’t worry or get discouraged, as you wear the hearing aids over time, you’ll find the sounds to be as familiar and sweet as your old friends.

Hearing voices, but not understanding the speech.
Being able to hear and recognize the human voice is an improvement! Speech understanding involves adequate loudness and a well-functioning language center of the brain. Since you haven’t been exposed to enough sound stimuli for a while, please stay positive and give your brain some time.

Want to do something to facilitate this?
You may wish to be proactive about conversations with your friends and family members. Remember, let them be patient and talk slowly and clearly without liaison or elision.
You may connect your hearing aids to devices (e.g., cellphone, smart TV, computer, etc.) via Bluetooth to watch well-articulated videos like news broadcasts and documentaries. You can start watching them at 0.75x speed.

The hearing aids are making a harsh sound, are they malfunctioning?
Not really. When the sound from the hearing aid receiver is captured by the microphone, the hearing aid makes an earpiercing sound, which is called “whistling”, aka “feedback”. Just like the microphone sometimes does when it’s too close to the
stereo. To avoid whistling, we recommend that you use properly sized earpieces and adjust their position to make a perfect seal with your ears, or switch to double domes that are more occlusive (which may produce an occlusion effect though).

My ears feel plugged up when wearing hearing aids.
It’s fine to feel like this at the beginning.
The silicone earpieces of Orka hearing aids need to be put exactly into the ear canal, while your ears will keenly detect them.
If you find the blockage in your ears unbearable, please ventilate your ear canal intermittently. Or, with the advice of our Orka Hearing Care Professionals, switch to the open domes in accessories.

Experienced hearing aids user

• My new device feels different from the old one.
  Orka is a RIC (Receiver-in-Canal) model, which features silicone earpieces that have to be fitted exactly inside the ear canal. Therefore, your ears may feel plugged up when first wearing them.

• This is normal and we recommend you:

  • Keep a positive mindset and adjust patiently
  • Ventilate your ear canal intermittently
  • if you find the blockage in your ears unbearable, e.g., a 30-minute break after 5 hours of wear
  • Try double domes that are more occlusive to get a better hearing experience

• Is it okay that I am experiencing these situations?

  • Feel that the sounds heard with the new hearing aids are strange⁠—this is because of the acoustic differences between different devices Feel that the whole world has become louder⁠—relax, you’re hearing richer sounds
  • Feel that the old hearing aids are better than the new ones⁠—don’t worry, you’re still adapting to it

These feelings are actually normal. Please don’t let this discourage you or give up trying. It usually takes 15 to 30 days to adjust to new hearing aids.

How to adapt to my hearing aid buddies?

Here are some useful tips that we believe will help:

Increase the length of time you wear them in a gradual manner.

Weeks 1-2

Wear at intervals, each around 1–⁠2 hours. It will take some time to adjust to all kinds of sounds coming back to you. It’s recommended that you stay in a quiet environment at this time to avoid discomfort from exposure to irritating background noise. You may practice how to tune into sounds again by consciously picking up the sound of the fridge running, the door opening, the fan rotating, etc.

Weeks 3–⁠4:

Wear at intervals, each around 2–⁠4 hours. By now, you should be starting to get used to the new hearing experience with Orka. You may walk around the neighbourhood or nearby parks, yet for the time being, it’s better to keep away from overly loud occasions, such as busy streets, children playing, etc.

After 5 weeks:

6+ hours per day. You are getting more comfortable with your hearing aids and your brain is getting more accustomed to the complicated world of sound. You may go to public spaces like markets and shopping malls as appropriate. Try to improve your visualauditory communication skills by lipreading to understand what others are saying.

After 3 months:

You should become accustomed to your Orka hearing aids and sometimes you may even forget they are sitting in your ears! We recommend that you have them in for long periods of time daily, except for routines like sleeping, bathing, intense workouts, etc.

Communicate with Orka Hearing Care Professionals to continuously optimize your hearing experience.

Your hearing aids need to be customized to your unique hearing profile. You are encouraged to schedule a visual consultation with our Hearing Care Professionals for your first remote fit as soon as you get your Orka. Moving forward, your hearing experience may vary over time, and we will need to further finetune your hearing aids for you.

Helpful resources to facilitate your journey

We’ve prepared some useful materials to ensure a smooth transition for you. Simply click them to view.

Quick Start Guide
Instructions for quick and easy set up

How-to Videos
Daily maintenance, fitting, connecting and adjusting your hearing aids

User Manual
Detailed information about hearing aids usage

Orka Health App

• Personalized your hearing profile with Orka Health app.
• Schedule a remote session in the app to fine-tune your hearing aids.
• Open up a whole new world of listening with easy App controls for every scenario.

Please feel free to share with us whatever you may find in your hearing journey, good or bad. We will always be at your side to embrace the beauty of sound and unlock the possibilities of hearing health with you.

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