Hard Lump in Cheek from Wisdom Teeth Extraction!?

Five days ago, I had all four of my wisdom teeth extracted (upper left and right and lower left and right). The procedure went well, about 40mins to complete. Recovery was uneventful.

However, on the night after my surgery, a huge, golf ball sized lump appeared in my lower left cheek (different from the normal swelling associated with wisdom teeth extraction). It is pretty much on my jaw and some of my cheek. It is hard to the touch and is not painful, but I feel a lot of pressure from it and its edges are a bit tender.

All my swelling went down after the third day of recovery, but the lump is still there and is making my cheek look huge and swollen! It is still hard to the touch... There is a small hazelnut sized lump on my lower right jaw now, too...

I tried putting heated compresses on them this afternoon, thinking they were hematomas that just need to resorb, but then they sort of got more swollen and started to throb and gave me a headache

Are they just huge, hard hematomas or what?? How can they reabsorb when they are as hard as rubber balls?

I went to the dentist's yesterday to get them checked out, but the oral surgeon who performed my wisdom teeth extraction was not there, so another dentist looked at me. He didn't seem very knowledgeable and couldn't answer my questions... He just gave me flagyl to take along with my amoxicillin just in case it was an infection caused by anaerobic bacteria.

I followed every post-op care instruction carefully and don't think it's an infection because it isn't causing any acute pain other than some tenderness and difficulty opening my mouth...

What should I do? Will I have to get them surgically removed? They do not seem to be shrinking at all. I have an appointment with my oral surgeon tomorrow.

PLEASE HELP!

[Jerome Tsang, DDS]

I was thinking initially by your description that your antibiotics may not be working and another antibiotic would be useful.  It does take a few days for the antibiotics to work. Until then, your oral surgeon may consider doing an incision and drainage on it if its an infection.