ear damage?

Every day I wake up with a clogged right ear, which remains that way until the middle of the afternoon or longer. I had upper jaw surgery to correct an open bite in 2001, which caused both ears to clog for quite a while, but it's the right ear that has continued trouble, even in the dry wintertime. It seems that the clogged ear is a side effect of the surgery, which perhaps changed the pitch of my eustachian tube or caused some type of damage. With spring trees budding now, my ears seeme to stay clogged even longer. Over the weekend, my ear never opened up and today I am still deaf in that ear, with pressure building in it.

Should I take some sort of medication for it (a decongestant or expectorant?)? Is there a certain diet that would help? (I eat very little salt already.) Do I need tubes put into my ear? Will continued fluid in my inner ear (I suspect) cause damage to my ear drum or hearing loss? My hearing in that ear does seem less sharp than in the left.

Also, I'm flying to China in July and am concerned about ear pressure build-up as we take off/land. What do you suggest? Thank you!