IME I've mostly found that using plural pronouns without calling attention to them works well enough, except in cases where there's another plural pronoun in the same phrase. That is, "Sam didn't much care for corn, because it got stuck in their teeth" rarely causes comment (though I expect it to cause comment now, because I've called attention to it), but "Sam didn't much care for corn kernels, because they got stuck in their teeth" makes people blink.

(Of course, this is no different from any other shared-pronoun situation. "Sam didn't much care for kissing her boyfriend, because her tongue kept getting caught in his braces" is clear enough, but "Sam didn't much care for kissing her girlfriend, because her tongue kept getting caught in her braces" is decidedly unclear.)