Stuff near the outside world, that tickles and fowls up shallow-fit earbuds, I remove with the curve of a wire paperclip. There is absolutely no chance that I get this anything like far enough in to cause any damage.
I do suffer from bad wax buildup. One thing I notice is not being able to hear the beep-beep kitchen timer across the room. Then I go to the ear doc. he has scoops, tools, vacuum tubes (not of the audio kind) and all sorts of stuff, but I get so nervous when he digs deep that I can't sit still, so I request the old-fashioned water wash.
I do this about three times a year. it's due about now, even though I can hear the kitchen timer. Back in January my doc was out of town, and a different one did it. He used a hydrogen peroxide soak, as there was a lot of wax. it bubbled and sounded like explosions!
Hydrogen peroxide comes in different strengths. I think it could be dangerous if you didn't know what you were doing. The only thing I do is to put drops, as specified by the doc, in my ears for a few days, that softens the wax and makes the removal easier. Once I start that process, I am almost completely deaf until it all gets washed out. Once that is done, for a few days, I can understand why my wife says I have a heavy hand on the PC keyboard!