45 days after Wisdom Teeth removal - Still very sore

I had my wisdom teeth removed on December 23rd.  I only had one on top, two on the bottom.  Neither were severely impacted, but were getting very near to the roots.  I went under for the procedure, came out, and everything, reportedly, went fine.

I was very careful about aftercare, stayed on liquid diet for quite a while, almost two weeks.  Had no infections, no dry sockets, etc.  Two of the three sites have healed well, almost completely healed in.  The bottom-right side, however, is still causing problems.  I have a very tender ball of swelling just below my TMJ, near my jawbone.  Chewing is still painful for anything that's dense or crunchy.  I've been back in to my surgeon twice.  The first time, he thought it might be an infection, and ran me through a course of Cephalexin (after the initial course of Penicillin immediately following surgery).  When that didn't help, he put me on 5 days of Prednisone to reduce swelling, telling me it was healing normally, and the pain I was experiencing was likely just swelling pressing on the nerve (my "Nerve Ridge" was fairly high up in my jaw, near the roots of the teeth that were removed).

The prednisone did very little (other than make me a agitated for a few days, heh) to help.  Recently, I've begun having pain in that swelling site when opening my jaw near its limit.  It feels like a tightening around that site, centered on my TMJ.  

I'm now 46 days out from my surgery, and still can't get through a day without taking 800mg of ibuprofen 2 or 3 times a day.  My surgeon assures me everything is healing fine, but I'm starting to wonder if he knows what the heck he's talking about, whether I should get a consultation with a different doctor before something gets worse back there.  I kinda like my jaw, and would like to keep it in working order.

Is this length of healing normal?  How long should I expect the extremely tender swelling in the corner of my jaw?  The tightness when opening my jaw?  What signs should I be looking for to see if something is *seriously* wrong?  

[burgeni]

I would go to a different OS. That doesn't sound right. Especially since he didn't solve the problem at this point. It wouldn't hurt to get a second opinion and tell them what you have gone through. Maybe look in your area for a good recommended OS. Or read yellow page online reviews? Good luck!!!