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It depends a bit on the type and location of the infection.
If you have an infection of the outer ear, causing by liquid trapped behind earwax in the outer ear canal, you can often fix it yourself.
Once home remedy that can work is using an eye dropper to drop warmed hydrogen peroxide into the ear.
Warm the hydrogen peroxide to about 130f - letting a small bottle of it sit in hot tap water for 5 minutes is about right.
You can also buy a small plastic tool that can be stuck in the ear to remove ear wax buildup. This works best when used when you first start feeling pain, as a preventive measure.
You can buy lavage kits that contain little bottles of a stroner peroxide solution, and a little lavage bulb called an ear syringe, but in my experience a dropper with warmed hydrogen peroxide works better (it's milder) and is less irritating.
Doctors will often use various tools to clean out the ear, sometimes a suction tool, sometimes just a probe similar to the plastic thing you can buy at the drugstore.
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