Oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMDs) characterized by the presence of dysplasia and DNA copy number aberrations (CNAs), may reflect chromosomal instability (CIN) and predispose to oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Early detection of OPMDs with such characteristics may play a crucial role in OSCC prevention. The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between CNAs, histological diagnosis, oral subsite and aneuploidy in OPMDs/OSCCs. Samples from OPMDs and OSCCs were processed by high-resolution DNA flow cytometry (hr DNA-FCM) to determine the relative nuclear DNA content. Additionally, CNAs were obtained for a subset of these samples by genome-wide array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) using DNA extracted from either diploid or aneuploid nuclei suspension sorted by FCM. Our study shows that: i) aneuploidy, global genomic imbalance (measured as the total number of CNAs) and specific focal CNAs occur early in the development of oral cancer and become more frequent at later stages; ii) OPMDs limited to tongue (TNG) mucosa display a higher frequency of aneuploidy compared to OPMDs confined to buccal mucosa (BM) as measured by DNA-FCM; iii) TNG OPMDs/OSCCs show peculiar features of CIN compared to BM OPMDs/OSCCs given the preferential association with total broad and specific focal CNA gains. Follow-up studies are warranted to establish whether the presence of DNA aneuploidy and specific focal or broad CNAs may predict cancer development in non-dysplastic OPMDs.