A tongue depressor is usually used to compress the tongue during a pharyngeal swab, and a sterile substance such as a cotton swab may be used if necessary. The pharyngeal swab method of specimen collection usually requires the subject to tilt his/her head back and open his/her mouth wide to expose the pharynx and pharyngeal tonsils, and the collector passes the pharyngeal swab through the base of the tongue to the posterior pharyngeal wall of the tonsils and smears the swab several times to obtain the specimen. For those who are unable to expose the above areas, a tongue depressor can be used to gently press the middle and posterior portion of the subject’s tongue, or a cotton swab can be used if necessary, but it should be sterile so as not to affect the results of the test. Pharyngeal swab specimen collection is mainly used to obtain the secretions from the pharynx and tonsils of the examinee, so as to carry out microbial culture testing, which is used for the diagnosis and treatment of clinical diseases.