Many at-home antigen tests suggest inserting a swab only one-half or three-quarters of an inch into your nose.

So why do some health care workers dig deeper? Here’s what I found out →

Your nasal cavity is much larger than your nose — it extends far into your skull and drains into the back of your throat. Inhaled coronavirus particles can attach to different soft tissues in your nasal cavity or throat.

The gold standard place to test for the coronavirus is in the nasopharynx, where the back of your nose meets the top of your throat. But getting there is uncomfortable: A testing swab must move through four inches of sensitive tissues.

Nasopharynx swabs can feel like you’re being poked in your brain. They are very good at picking up even small traces of the virus, but it takes training to reach the right spot. Don’t try to do it yourself.

The midturbinate and anterior nares swabs in at-home tests are typically designed to use samples from the middle or shallow parts of your nose. Swab just inside your nostril and follow the test manufacturer’s instructions.

These shallow swabs are slightly less likely to detect the virus, but their performance improves when you have a higher viral load in your nose, making at-home tests excellent at flagging people who are highly contagious.

Testing recommendations could continue to evolve. Research shows that the coronavirus also infects the cells in the mouth, and some studies suggest that saliva tests could identify infections days earlier than nose-based swabs.

We built an augmented reality effect that shows you the interior of a nasal cavity, and how far each type of swab reaches, on your own head.

To experience this effect, you’ll need the Instagram app.

Head over to Instagram to see how deep different nose swabs go.

Or read more about at-home tests:

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