Why does my ear keep popping?

For over a year now, I have had this issue with my ear making a popping noise when I either open mouth or if say, I have the sniffles and I go to sniff, it pops. I have always had a problem with my left ear since I cn remember and a few yrs back I used a Q tip to clean out the ear and ended up hurting it so dys later ended up at a walk in clinic where the woman drained the ear. I wasnt able to hear out of it 3 dys prior to the treatment at clinic. Please cn someone help me on what could be the prob? thx soo much.