I only clean the outsides. When I was 15 or so, I started having really bad hearing, and my ears started to hurt really bad. I thought it was another ear infection (I've had probably 5 surgeries on both of my ears as a child), and went to the ENT Dr. He looked in my ear and asked me if I cleaned my ears with q-tips. I told him yes, and he ripped me a new one. He told me that was one of the worst things you could do to your ears.
He sent one of his nurses in with a syringe to clean my ears out. The nurse did that twice and nothing ever came out. I didn't have any infection, and I still couldn't hear properly. The nurse got the Dr. and they both came back in and he took another look in my ears, said some medical mumbo jumbo to the nurse, and next thing I know she comes in with some sort of stainless steel tray with all of these devices that looked frankly terrifying to me.
Well...he rolls up next to me with one of these devices, grabs my head, and turns it so that he is eye level with my ear. He sticks one of his instruments in there and fools around, mumbles a few things, and then turns around and picks up this instrument of torture. This little device looked like a 3 pronged hook with some sort of horrid thing coming out of it. He sticks this little device in my year and tells me stay still.....there is going to be some discomfort (for future reference, if a doctor ever tells you this....what he really means is its gonna hurt like a mother fucker!) as he sticks this thing down my ear. Next thing I know, theres a loud pop in my ear (apperently this little instrument from hell was spring loaded), and the doctor pulls the device out of my ear, and in the process I'm in tears from the pain. After he pulls it out, he shows me what he pulled out. Attached to the little hook thing was a ball of brown and red ball of wax the size of a marble.
I was horrified, and he looked at me and said 'that is the largest ball of wax I have ever pulled out of anyones ear.' "Dont you ever put anything in your ear to clean it again. That is dangerous, and the ear naturally drains wax out while you sleep."
And thats my story lol