My dog yelps when I touch her ear?

My dog has always had ear problems and everytime I take her to the vet for it it always just turns out to be build up. Recently she started favoring her right ear and sometimes cries when I touch it. I have checked her ear and noticed that there is a lot of build up inside and am wondering if that is something that could cause her pain. It is going to take me a couple days to get the money together to take her to the doctor so I was curious as to what I can do for her in the meantime. I am almost positive it is not an infection or ear mites since I've had animals with both in the past.