iPhone 4S sound problem

Clean the iPhone charging port at the bottom of iPhone with clean dry toothbrush.

As an update to my original question, the volume control on the side of the phone does not work EXCEPT when the earbuds are plugged in.  I have tried resetting the iPhone to factory settings by erasing all contents and then restoring it to my last backup.  This did not solve the problem either.  I'm thinking this has to be an internal hardware issue that only an Apple tech at the store can resolve. 

Yeah, that would be easier than finding a toothbrush.

There's a fix for this on yourtube. So while apple choose to ignore the comapint by 150,000 people now here is the fix... Note this has nothing to do with sound.. its a software volume issue.

Beware it will remove the ability for you stereo to recognise the phone as a USB. So you won't be able to play music from your phone in your car unless its through the headphone plug..

It does however give you back your sound.. A small price I say.. Oh one more thing, I used ifile to do the fix on my iphone not iexplorer as the video show you.. same process just find the file and delete..

Im having the exact same problem. I did clean ports with a toothbrush, I did scour YouTube for ideas other then jailbreaking, I tried plugging and unplugging headphones. Nothing has worked yet. Any suggestions are welcome as I can't walk around with headphones all day and the apple store is 2 hrs away.