How to deal with expanders

Four days ago I got an expander at the top of my mouth. It goes from one molar to the other and every night you have to turn it to expand your teeth. The reason I have this is because my teeth are too “clumped” together and there’ll be no room for my teeth to grow in. The annoying part is that food always gets stuck in-between the top of my mouth and the expander. You might think toothpicks and those thing they give you with your expanders that are just like toothpicks will help, well, they will but an easier way to get it out is to try to push the food out of your mouth with your tongue. then take a napkin and try to grab the food with it. this is definitely disgusting and you might not know what I mean, but it’s the best way I’ve come up with so far.