One reason that q-tips are bad is that they leave fibers that can help the earwax hold together so it won’t work its way out by itself. I use a tweezerman blackhead extractor. It is sturdier and less scratchy feeling than a bobby pin.
The master speaks re: ear candling.
What’s that? I can’t hear you… I’ve got candles in my ears!
I said…
Ick.
Now I have to go clean out my ears.
Keep at it with the OTC ear cleaner stuffs. In my case, it took several treatments a day for several days. The end result was worth it, though, and pretty amazing. All at once, during the cleaning-out irrigation after peroxide treatment, the clogged ear released a HUGE football-shaped lump of wax. It looked like an entire earplug made of solid, dark brown wax. I’m amazed that I could hear at all with such an obstruction. The other ear gave it up the next day.
So, keep with the program, and you WILL see results.
Holy crap - not The Max Torque? Blonde, six foot something? Yer a lawyer? And married? Congrats?
[/hijack]
I guess I should weigh in with the expert opinion here. The OTC ear cleaner meds are great. They are usually hydrogen peroxide dissolved in mineral oil and even if they don’t work, they can loosen the wax so it is much easier for a doctor or nurse to irrigate.
Don’t use Q-tips. DONT use bobby pins! It’s very very easy to scratch your ear canal with a bobby pin, which is just asking for an infection. Also, most of the wax is much further in than you think and if you try to stick something in that far you run the risk of puncturing your eardrum.
Let me finish by listing some of the things I’ve had to remove from people’s ears when they ignored the above advice:
-the cotton top from a Q-tip (lost count of how often this happens)
-the little insert from the top of a bic pen (don’t clean your ears with pens!)
-an insect (OK, she didn’t actually know it was there-I was doing a random ear check and noticed it)
-a variety of unrecognizable objects used to clean the ears
Oh, and the ear candling is crap.
Apply it directly to the stool for best results. 
3 drops in each ear, leave for 15 minutes, then rinse out with the water/hydrogen peroxide (50/50) mixture.
Yeah, that’s me in a nutshell. I’m not around as much as I used to be, but I’m still breathing.
I’ve had this three times in the past 18 months. Each time I’ve ended up having the ear syringed (actually it’s an electrically driven pump, they don’t seem to use the syringe any more) after dropping the solution in there for a week. On the last two occasions they said don’t use the propriatory things like Earex, they don’t recommend them any more as they can use ear-drum damage, use olive oil from an eye dropper.
Well, hidey-ho, former neighbor. Glad to hear you are well. 