Issue with iphone volume buttons

Okay so, my volume buttons worked fine yesterday, I could press them up and down and they'd work, well now all of a sudden, they will not work, as you can see in the picture, as I try to turn up the ringer, it doesn't have any dots indicating that it's successfully increasing the ringer. And when I'm trying to watch a video, there's no sound and I'll try to turn up the volume and nothing comes up on the screen indicating that I'm turning it up, and it doesn't increase the volume at all.
BUT when I go to settings, and manually turn up my ringer, that works. And it even starts to play the song I have set to my ringer that way I can hear the volume increase and decrease.
I looked up the issue and it said that there's most likely dirt in my charging port, so I cleaned it out, and it worked! Everything was back to normal, but then it kept happening over and over again.
If anyone knows how to permanently fix this issue Please TELL ME!
Btw, when I get texts or set alarms, no sound!

Go to an apple store near u if you do not find a solution. Get a case for your phone. If you already have one get one that covers up more. Best tip i can think of

Did you try turning it off then on?