Congested ear and crunching jaw?

A few years ago the left side of my jaw at the joint started making this crunching noise (to me) and last year I noticed that when I lie on my left side my left ear gets plugged. Now it always feels somewhat congested. I have no allergy problems, pain or anything else going on. Why is it clogging when on my left side, how do I get it to stop (I hate going to the dr) and what is causing the crunching problem? Are they related?